João Pinheiro da Silva (16 December 1860 – 25 October 1908) was a Brazilian lawyer, industrialist and politician who served as president of Minas Gerais.

The youngest son of Giuseppe Pignataro and Carolina Augusta de Morais, João Pinheiro was born on 16 December 1860 in Serro, Minas Gerais.

Pignataro was an Italian immigrant who arrived in Brazil in 1848, changing his name to José Pinheiro da Silva, while Carolina, born in Caeté on 22 May 1839, was the daughter of Antônio Pedro Pinto, a primary school teacher, and Joaquina Rosa de Morais.

[3][4][5] According to Maria Marta Araújo, João Pinheiro's father had "stable" financial conditions until 1862, when his situation took a sudden turn for the worse after he was arrested and tried on charges of being an accomplice of a group of Italians in the theft of gold coins and the murder of a local landowner's slave.

[5] Soon after, however, Pinheiro became involved with politics and active in the republican propaganda, allying himself with Cesário Alvim, a dissident from the Liberal Party and enemy of the Viscount of Ouro Preto.

[13] Pinheiro was elected president (governor) of Minas Gerais in 1906, taking office on 7 September of that year and succeeding Francisco Antônio de Sales.