The Gerdau Johannpeter family maintains a 78.9 per cent stake in one of the world’s largest steel manufacturers, Metalurgica Gerdau S.A. The global conglomerate was established by Johann Heinrich Kaspar Gerdau (João Gerdau) in 1901, and until 2006 was run his great-grandson, Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter, as CEO. His son Andre Bier Gerdau Johannpeter, who was also a two-time Olympic Equestrian medal winner, took over until 2017 before being succeeded by a non-family member, Gustavo Werneck da Cunha, the following year. According to a list of Brazil’s richest families and individuals published by Forbes in 2014, Jorge and his family are worth a combined $USD926 million, placing them in 48th position. Today, no fewer than four of his offspring and other relatives maintain board positions, with Claudio Gerdau Johannpeter the current chairman since January 2018. This is the fifth generation of Johannpeters to be involved in the family business, which began to experience rapid growth after World War II when Curt Johannpeter, the son in law of Hugo Gurdau, bought a majority stake in a local steel mill in 1948. Until they each retired to the board, Curt’s four children ran the company successfully, expanding its operations overseas throughout the 1980s and acquiring new assets. Speaking in 2000, the youngest of the brothers, Frederico, said, “We need to consolidate our holdings, and work on our cash flow to bring down debt. After that, we’ll go shopping.”
