Maria das Graças Silva Foster was born on February 26, 1953, in Morro do Adeus, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Maria das Graças Silva Foster was born on February 26, 1953, in the Morro do Adeus favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into a family of extremely modest means. Her upbringing in poverty, without running water or basic infrastructure for much of her childhood, would later shape her public narrative as an emblem of social mobility through education.
Despite the hardship of her early years, she demonstrated an aptitude for mathematics and science that set her on an unlikely path toward one of the most powerful corporate positions in Latin America. Her early life is frequently cited in profiles of her as an example of overcoming systemic barriers of class and gender in Brazilian society.
She would go on to become the first woman to lead Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil giant, and one of the first women in the world to head a major integrated oil company, making her early biography a touchstone in discussions of gender and class barriers in global corporate leadership.
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