Maria das Gra?as Foster is no average Brazilian executive. For a start, the chief executive of Petrobras is a woman — in fact, the first woman to lead an oil major. Nor was she born into a life of privilege but raised in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous slums. After collecting scrap metal for cash as a child, she joined Petrobras as an intern in 1978 and accumulated an encyclopedic knowledge of Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer that would put any boss to shame.
瑪麗亞?格拉卡斯?福斯特(Maria das Gra?as Foster)并非等閑的巴西企業高管。首先,這位巴西國家石油公司(Petrobras)的前首席執行官是位女性——事實上,也是執掌大型石油企業的首位女性。她也沒有顯赫出身,相反她是在里約熱內盧最危險的貧民窟之一長大。小時候曾撿廢金屬賣錢的她,于1978年以實習生的身份進入巴西國家石油公司,逐漸對這家國有石油生產商了如指掌,足以讓任何一個老板自慚形愧。