Maria das Graças Foster

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Maria das Graças Silva Foster, 2012.

Marcello Casal Jr./Agencia Brasil

Maria das Graças Fosteris a Brazilian engineer and businesswoman who was the first female CEO (2012–15) of the state-run petroleum corporation Petrobras, one of the largest companies in the world as measured by market valuation.

Maria das Graças Silva was born into poverty and was raised by her mother in Morro do Adeus, a hillside area on the edge of Rio de Janeiro that eventually became part of one of that city’s crowded and crime-ridden favelas, or shantytowns. As a small girl, she made money by picking through trash and selling recyclable material. Pushed by her mother to succeed, she attended the Fluminense Federal University in Niterói, near Rio, and graduated in 1978 with a degree in chemical engineering. That year she joined Petrobras as an engineering intern in its exploration and production division. Except for a brief stint (2003–05) with the federal Ministry of Mines and Energy, she did not leave the Petrobras group until 2015. She married expatriate English businessman Colin Foster in 1985.

Foster was said to have been the first woman to step onto a Petrobras offshore oil platform and install production equipment. Prior to her becoming CEO, her entire career was spent in the production and exploration area. As she worked her way up the engineering and management ladder, she acquired a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a postgraduate degree in nuclear engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as an M.B.A. in economics from the prestigious Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. She was commonly known by the diminutive “Graça” on account of her personable nature, and she was also occasionally referred to as “Caveirão,” a type of armoured car, for her work ethic.

Foster’s competence, style, and loyalty to the policies of Brazil’s Workers’ Party caught the eye of Dilma Rousseff, who before being elected president in 2011 was federal minister of mines and energy and also chairwoman of the board of Petrobras. From 2003 to 2005 Foster worked under Rousseff in Brasília as secretary for oil, natural gas, and renewable fuels. In 2005 she returned to Petrobras as CEO of its petrochemicals division, Petroquisa, and the following year she became CEO of its distribution arm, Petrobras Distribuidora. In 2007 the CEO of Petrobras, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, named her the first female head of Petrobras Gás. With this appointment Foster became a member of Petrobras’s board of directors, with responsibility for natural gas production.

At the urging of President Rousseff, Petrobras’s board made Foster CEO of the company in February 2012. Two years into her tenure, a corruption scandal engulfed Petrobras and ultimately led to the impeachment (2016) of Rousseff. Although Foster was not accused of any wrongdoing, her handling of the situation drew criticism, and in 2015 she resigned. Two years later, however, Brazil’s securities regulator accused Foster of graft.