He ran one of the largest mining companies in the world, Vale SA, and in 2013 was voted by Harvard Business Review as the world’s fourth best-performing chief executive officer behind Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung.

[3] In 2000–2001, Agnelli was the President and CEO of the Brazilian holding company Bradespar that was founded by Banco Bradesco in order to allow the bank to spin off some of its industrial investments.

[3] Also in 2000–2001, Agnelli was the Chairman of the Board of Directors Vale SA, where, in 2001, he was named its President and CEO, the position he held until his ouster in 2011.

[4] Barely two weeks after this announcement, Agnelli was voted out of office at the request of Brazil’s government and replaced as CEO by long-time Vale SA executive Murilo Ferreira, who was more friendly to the ruling Workers Party and described as being an acquaintance of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.

[5] Agnelli had previously clashed with former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after his firing of 2,000 workers in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008, and had, also, accused members of Lula’s Workers Party of trying to install loyalists at Vale SA and seek a bigger say in key decisions.