2008 • Barack Obama is elected to office as the United States’44th President and becomes the first African descendent to lead the world’s largest economy • On the 15th. of September, the Lehman Brothers bank files bankruptcy, accelerating the impacts of the US’s greatest economic crisis ever since the 1929 crash and triggering global impacts • Fidel Castro steps down but bestows upon his brother, Raul Castro, the office of President of Cuba • Brazil’s most important stock exchange markets – Bovespa e BM&F – announce their merger • The largest private bank in Brazil is formed, once Itaú and Unibanco likewise, announce a merger • Bill Gates announces his stepping down of executive functions held at Microsoft • Rio de Janeiro’s government sets up the first Pacifying Police Unit (UPP), at the slums surrounding and atop the Santa Marta slum • Frederico Curado, a Group 8 alumnus of the Executive MBA, takes office as President of Embraer, a company seen as a symbol of Brazil’s competitiveness in high-tech products • The International MBA is launched, entirely conducted in English in Brazil; 53% of enrolled students are from Europe and North America, and come to study at FIA • Profuturo FIA’s prospection methodologies and techniques are presented at the World Future Society conference held in Washington D.C., USA “A lot of topflight quality people were brought into my world!!!” LEANDRO DE SOUZA LIMA VENTURA – CLASS GROUP 34 “The discipline on global markets extended my perception as to the opportunities one has in the world and not only in Brazil; I understood that today I am a global professional, no longer remaining restricted to our country.” EDÉLCIO APARECIDO FONSECA – CLASS GROUP 35 2009 • Rio de Janeiro wins the dispute to host the 2016 Olympic Games • As a result of a merger between Sadia and Perdigão, Brasil Foods, currently known as BRF, is created. • Profuturo FIA launches the Future Studies Research Journal, which presents studies on both future studies and strategy. Professors James and Renata lead this scientific initiative as Editors. • The International Capacity Building Alliance (ICBA) project is conducted, with partial sponsorship from Novartis, as a joint Profuturo FIA, Gesc Institute and the MBA Alumni Association project, from which teaching material and methodologies, to develop philanthropic NGOs, is transferred to 17 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas “I highlight the People Management discipline since we were exposed to a set of best practices and teachers that I deem well above average. They drove me into hours’ worth of thinking over!” RICARDO SANTANA MALTEZ – CLASS GROUP 36 “Professor Joel Dutra’s class on career management, awakened me into entrepreneurship and enabling my coming to get to know of my professional interests and how I may integrate these with my personal interests.” ANA CAROLINA BUENO NIGRO – CLASS GROUP 37
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