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Bruno Medeiros, a Portuguese Odebrecht member in Mozambique, with his wife, Susana, and daughters Rita (left) and Laura, in Maputo

FAMILY SUPPORT FOR EXPERIENCING THE WORLD UAE CULTURES COME TOGETHER IN THE MIDDLE EAST

USA REFLECTING THE NATION’S DIVERSITY AT THE JOBSITES

Different but equal Our teams are made up of people from 77 nationalities.

We work in the hot sands of the United Arab Emirates, the heights of the Peruvian Andes, rural areas of Angola and Portugal, downtown Miami and S達o Paulo, and wherever else there is a challenge to overcome in the 23 countries where we are active.

The Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology offers us they key touchstone for working in a global environment.

For us, people, no matter what their background or culture, must always be the beginning, means, and end of everything we do.

E D I T O R I A L

PROTAGONISTS OF A BOUNDLESS JOURNEY A

n opportunity arises to live and work abroad. You finally get the call. But as much as you may have wanted to leave your home country and had real prospects of doing so, when the proposal actually comes, your first reaction is shock. It’s only natural. That’s what happens when a dream is about to come true. After the initial surprise comes the comforting feeling of achieving a major goal. The path ahead becomes clearer, and you realize that this is a good opportunity to accelerate your personal and professional growth. Bags packed, the house emptied, the family experiencing a whirlwind of emotions, it’s time to go. After a journey like that, no one comes back the same.

The main theme of this issue of Odebrecht Informa is “Cultural Diversity.” Here you will find stories that symbolize people’s capacity to adapt to different situations. More than that, they are stories about overcoming barriers through intelligence and determination to become an integral part of completely

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new settings and circumstances.

In the following reports, you will delve deeply into examples of respectful and productive coexistence involving Odebrecht Group members while carrying out the entrepreneurial missions entrusted to them around the globe.

In 2014, as it celebrates the 35th anniversary of its first project outside Brazil, built in Peru, the Group has 180,000 members from nearly 80 nationalities working in 23 countries worldwide. Their touchstone is the principles of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO), a philosophy of life and work designed to be implemented anywhere, under any conditions. In the reports in this issue, you will see why Odebrecht teams feel right at home wherever they are.

Living the world. Experiencing change. Getting to know their peers in this immense and endlessly suprising family called humankind. All it takes is talent, motivation, and the essential aid of TEO. Good reading. ]

Ď€ Ash Vijaykumar and Yunwei Tong at the Grand Parkway project in Houston, Texas: a jobsite that is just like the USA

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H I G H L I G H T S

COVER

ECUADOR

Photo by Américo Vermelho.

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Cultural Diversity Odebrecht’s global operations give rise to a paradigmatic experience of sharing expectations, trading expertise, and unity Historically a place where Odebrecht members hone their skills, this country is welcoming back professionals who had been working abroad

ANGOLA

30 During the daily operations of the SONAREF project in Benguela Province, people of 18 nationalities work together productively

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BRAZIL

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MOZAMBIQUE

Company members born outside Brazil are doing their bit to ensure that Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias achieves its aims

In these stories of warm welcomes, discoveries, and understanding amid diversity, the family plays a prominent role

FOLKS

INTERVIEW

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Learn more about the daily lives of Augusta, Vitor, Carla and Daniel – Odebrecht members who are working in the Americas, Africa, and Europe

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INTERNATIONAL GROWTH Braskem’s arrival in countries outside Brazil is enabling leading figures in this major entrepreneurial drive to undergo transformative experiences

COMMUNICATION The Odebrecht Group issues a new Policy on Communication as a direct result of the diversity, magnitude, and impact of its Businesses, among other factors

Luiz Bueno discusses the challenges, lessons, exchanges and personal impacts of the decision to live outside his home country

ARGUMENT

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Luiz Teive and a personal statement about implementing the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology worldwide

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C O V E R

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THE STRENGTH THAT COMES FROM DIVERSITY THE ODEBRECHT GROUP’S PRESENCE IN 23 COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE GIVES ITS MEMBERS A CHANCE TO BECOME AGENTS OF A SYMBOLIC AND PRODUCTIVE PROCESS OF UNIFICATION FOR PEOPLE FROM VARIED BACKGROUNDS

π Sandeep and Sirisha Pothuri are Odebrecht members from India working in Abu Dhabi

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Ď€ Odebrecht Agroindustrial members Desilien Ceus, from Haiti, and Kleber Albuquerque, from Brazil: understanding and cooperation

Lennon Almeida is a Brazilian from Salvador, Bahia, who left home to work in Angola, Peru and Mexico. He has lived in Ecuador since 2013 with his wife, who is from the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, and their young daughter, who was born in Quito. Jorge Manuel da Silva is from Angola, and now lives in Havana, Cuba, a country with which he has long and warm ties. Yvo Paul Antonius is from the Netherlands. After traveling the world, from Europe to Asia and the Americas, he now lives in Brazil, where his professional address is the Santos Basin. Rami Nassar left his native Lebanon over 20 years ago, and has worked on projects in Miami and New Orleans in the USA, as well as in the United Arab Emirates and Angola. He is now working in Houston, Texas. In Abu Dhabi, Sirisha and Sandeep Pothuri get together with their countrymen at a social center for people from their home country to celebrate the festivals of India.

All of them are expat Odebrecht members who are living the experience of serving others amid cultural diversity. The stories of the lives and careers of Lennon, Jorge Manuel, Yvo, Ramir, Siricha, Sandeep and many others are the raw materials for this issue of Odebrecht Informa. When the editors received the first reports, and even when researching the stories beforehand, they felt a growing sense of satisfaction about the frequent expressions of the importance of family. With the support of their spouses and children, Odebrecht Group members are playing a leading role in transformative experiences for themselves and the people with whom they interact. This is an enterprising story that speaks mainly of progress and growth – of communities and individuals united by bonds of respect, admiration, and the desire to work together to build a more diverse and productive world.

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EVERYONE IS WELCOME IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, ODEBRECHT MEMBERS WORK TOGETHER AMID A REVEALING MEETING OF CULTURES Written by Elea Almeida | Photos by Mohammed Baker

π Emirati Salama has her own prayer room at the office

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π Sandeep and Sirisha: husband and wife share the challenge of communicating with co-workers

Sirisha and Sandeep Pothuri get together with their fellow countrymen at an Indian community center in Abu Dhabi to celebrate their nation’s festivals. A dual national, Farid Dallal combines Lebanese traditions with the Brazilian passion for soccer and barbecue. Cherrie Bancod is from the Philippines. She put a lot of effort into learning how to cook so she could enjoy the flavors of home. Salama Al Kenji, from the United Arab Emirates, has a prayer room for her exclusive use at the office where she works.

Coming from different cultural backgrounds, these five people share personal and professional challenges from day to day during Odebrecht’s operations in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where the company in 2013 marked the tenth anniversary of its presence and service in that country.

Thanks to the recognition and solidity achieved during its first decade in that country, Odebrecht Infraestrutura – Africa, UAE and Portugal has 300 members from over 20 nationalities in the Emirates. “Living in such a rich environment makes you learn new ways of working, and grow as a human being. It is

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challenging, especially because of the language barrier, but we always find a way to communicate,” says Sandeep, a member of the project’s commercial team.

He arrived in the UAE in 2009, about a year after joining Odebrecht in Miami, in the United States. After they were married, his wife, Sirisha, moved to Abu Dhabi and started working at Odebrecht as well. This is her first job experience. “When I arrived on my first day, I felt insecure because of the cultural differences. But I soon I realized that I could talk to my co-workers and leaders, because they try to teach me everything they know,” says Sirisha. “In my area, we have four different nationalities working together. We have overcome the language barrier and learned to work together in harmony.”

Salama, the Emirati, had never heard of Odebrecht before she first came into contact with the organization. However, from the very start she also realized that, although the company was Brazilian and therefore had a very different culture, her Muslim beliefs and customs would be respected. When she found that she did not have a separate prayer room from the

men’s, as tradition requires, she informed her leaders. The next day, a room was placed at her disposal, because, she says, the company does its best to respect Emirati culture.

Her co-worker Sandeep says that he was prepared for a major culture shock, but instead, he received a warm welcome and feels right at home. The country is receptive and the working environment is “rewarding and challenging.”

“It has a very strong culture, but it is excellent and respects our differences. Furthermore, at Odebrecht you find Indians, Americans, Brazilians and Portuguese. That diversity teaches you how to deal with it,” he argues. Salama explains that it is necessary to learn about certain local customs. “But that can be worked out because, as Odebrecht says, everyone is equal, all cultures are important, and we are like one big family at the jobsite.”

Handling homesickness The harmony and unity among the Odebrecht members based in Abu Dhabi is helping ease

their homesickness. Cherrie was especially pleased to see the number of Filipinos at the company and in the UAE. That has made it easier for her to adapt, since this is her first experience of working outside her home country.

She stresses that family is very important in the local culture and, following the Emiratis’ example, despite having arrived in the country alone and single, she is now married and has a oneyear-old son. “The key to adaptation is communication and respect. You need to communicate with your co-workers and respect different beliefs and customs, accept people as they are, and work hard,” she advises.

The Brazilian-born son of Lebanese parents, Farid has also chosen to build a chapter of his life in Abu Dhabi. He lived in São Paulo for seven years until his parents moved to Lebanon so their children could experience their family’s Arab culture. He returned to Brazil to go to college, and started dreaming of living in the UAE. That dream came true in 2006, when he went to Dubai to work at Odebrecht. Since then, he has

π For Farid, going to live in the United Arab Emirates was a dream come true

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π Cherrie: “You’ve got to accept people as they are”

also lived and worked in Djibouti, Mozambique, Guinea, and Portugal.

When he looks back and compares his expectations and reality, he underscores two points: he had expected the UAE to be more focused on the Arab world, but found a people that is very open and respectful towards other religions and cultures. He thought he would be just another employee in just another company, but instead he became a member of an organization where the “family atmosphere, from the driver to the project manager,” is a major feature.

“That made me strive even harder to stay. TEO [the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology] makes everyone feel free to do the jobs they love and grow,” he says. According to Farid, one way he has found to overcome the challenges of cultural

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barriers at the company is taking language classes. English and Portuguese lessons enable people to grow professionally and improve communication with other company members.

Eduardo Badin, a Project Director in Abu Dhabi, argues that it takes a common thread that runs throughout people’s cultural diversity to ensure harmony in the workplace. “In our case, that is the role of TEO. The Group’s unique culture allows this diversity to become one of our greatest assets. With or without cultural differences, the relationship of trust between leaders and team members enables people to grow within their action programs while they deliver results to the client,” says Badin, who joined Odebrecht in 1993, but is new to Abu Dhabi, where he arrived in April 2014. ]

IDEAS

Written by Emanuella Sombra

Embraport has developed a creative, low-cost solution that makes seal checks of containers a safer procedure for all concerned when they are loaded on trucks.

The device, which stops the vehicles from moving, is being used for the first time in the Port of Santos, Brazil. The inspector presses a button that neutralizes the transmission. When their work is done, they release the vehicle and give the driver the green light.

Maintenance Manager José Roberto Rocco explains that, because they are both involved in a repetitive process in which the inspector and driver cannot see each other, either of them can get distracted. “It was one of the risks charted by our Workplace Safety team. This is a very common type of accident around the world.” Forty-two devices are being tested (they cost BRL 250 each). Expectations are that, by the end of May, this innovation will be used in 100% of truck inspections.

Odebrecht Archive

FULL CONTROL AT HAND

π A container truck in the Port of Santos: safer seal-checking procedures

VACUUM WASTE COLLECTION Under construction in São Paulo by Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias, the Group’s real estate business, Parque da Cidade (City Park) will be the first Brazilian development to introduce an automated vacuum waste collection system. The intake hatches, called portholes, are divided into three types of waste – organic, common, and recyclable. The trash moves at 70 km per hour through underground pneumatic tubes until it reaches a central collection station in the basement. Already sorted into separate containers, each type of trash will be taken to the ground floor in a special elevator and picked up by trucks. In addition to being silent, safe, and odorless, it will facilitate recycling and cut down on the number of truck trips to landfills, consequently reducing Parque da Cidade’s carbon footprint.

GENETIC UPGRADE Working in partnership with the Sugarcane Technology Center (CTC), Odebrecht Agroindustrial will set up genetic improvement hubs for sugarcane at two of the company’s units: Rio Claro and Morro Vermelho, in the Brazilian state of Goiás.

Experimental cane fields will be planted with a range of non-commercial varieties, or clones. The aim is to create a more balanced variety census that is better adapted to the new sugarcane growing areas, and ensure more productivity for the company.

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π Yvo: being humble and treating everyone with respect

A SAFE HAVEN FOR UNITY A DUTCHMAN AND A BRAZILIAN PERSONIFY THE WEALTH OF EXPERIENCES AND CULTURES AT ODEBRECHT ÓLEO E GÁS

Written by Edilson Lima | Photos by Carlos Júnior

Yvo Paul Antonius, 47, is the Dutch captain of the ODN I drillship. Nothing gives him more joy and pleasure than being at sea, whether practicing his profession around the world or surfing at the beaches of his current home, Santos, São Paulo, in his spare time. It is no exaggeration to say that he is a “master of the seven seas,” due to his vast experience of navigable routes, ranging from the European coast to African countries, and including Asia and the Americas. On one of his voyages, 24 years ago, he

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met his future wife, Brazilian Ana Lúcia Margherita.

Yvo is one example of the diverse backgrounds and cultures present in the teams of Odebrecht Óleo e Gás (Oil and Gas).

Initially working on cargo ships, he plied all sorts of international sea routes. However, as fate would have it, Yvo was assigned to replace another captain to take a cargo shipment to Santos. While the ship was in port, he and his shipmates joined in the city’s street carnival to get a first-hand taste of Brazilian

folk culture. That was where he met Ana Lúcia. They kept in touch, and she moved to Netherlands soon afterwards. Four years later, they returned to Brazil after Yvo receive a job offer there. “I didn’t speak Portuguese at the time, but she spoke very good English. So that helped us,” he says. They have two children, Anthony and Marjorie, now 21 and 15, respectively.

The language barrier may not have been a problem for Yvo and Ana Lúcia, but to work in Brazilian waters, he had to learn Portuguese, a language he now speaks fluently. In 1999, he joined Odebrecht as the captain of the drillship Valentin Shashin, which he helmed until 2003. After going on to work for other companies, he returned to Odebrecht in mid2011 as an Odebrecht Óleo e Gás member to helm ODN I, which is operating in the Santos Basin.

“I’ve visited many countries with very different cultures. The most important lesson I learned was to pay more attention to what other people have to say before taking action. Mutual understanding is the key to success. The greater our cultural differences, the more humble and respectful we must be,” he argues.

“You’re the one who has to adapt” Like Yvo, Emerson Farah, 54, has a passion for the sea. A native of Rio de Janeiro, for over 30 years he

has divided his attention between his work on offshore platforms and his extended family. Today he is the Maintenance Supervisor on drillship ODN II, in the Santos Basin, a post he has held since he joined the Odebrecht Óleo e Gás team in 2011.

When Emerson arrived at Odebrecht, he already had extensive expertise in maintenance. “I’ve had the opportunity of working and taking several courses in the United States. After that, I worked in Singapore and Norway. In all these situations, knowledge of English served as the anchor for communication,” he says. Speaking generally about his overseas experience, he observes, “You have to keep in mind that the foreigner is you. You are the one who has to adapt, learn the peculiarities of each culture and respect them.”

A fan of American singer-songwriters Josh Groban, who combines pop with classical music, and Clint Black, a country star, Emerson uses the references he has absorbed and honed around the world and the lessons of life to lead a team of 51 people aboard ODN II, five of whom are non-Brazilians. When asked about the challenge of dealing with cultural differences, he says, “Cultural diversity involves a number of concepts and solutions. Each person has a strong point that should be identified and developed so they take pleasure in being part of a single group.” ]

π Emerson stresses the need to identify everybody’s strong points

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π From left, standing, Brazilians Gabriel Amaral and Fabio Sousa and Frenchmen Frederic Boudoux and Bastien Garcia. Seated, Korean Han Tae-sik and Frenchman Pascal Pantigny: sharing and bonding at the DSME Shipyard in Geoje

RIGHT AT HOME IN THE FAR EAST IN SOUTH KOREA, ODEBRECHT ÓLEO E GÁS MEMBERS FIND AN ATMOSPHERE OF UNITY AND GROWTH Written by Ricardo Sangiovanni | Photos by AFP

Arriving at the office, saying good morning to the secretary, greeting people as you walk down the hall and sit down to work alongside your fellow engineers. Described that way, naval engineer Marcelo Pedro’s daily routine doesn’t seem that unusual. Except that the secretary is Korean, the people in the hallway are from Poland, Croatia, the UK, and Chile, their leader is Scottish, and his substitute is French. Marcelo’s four fellow engineers are Korean. Their office is located at the DSME Shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. “But the atmosphere is that of a Brazilian company,” guarantees Marcelo.

He joined this “Tower of Babel” in December 2011. He was the first member of the team (now made up of 73 members from 14 nationalities)

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that Odebrecht Odebrecht Óleo e Gás and its French partner Technip have formed to build two PSLVs (Pipe Laying Support Vessels) in Korea. The new units will be used to install pipelines to link oil wells and production platforms. Each is 145 m long by 30 m wide, capable of carrying 550 metric tons of cargo and accommodating up to 120 people.

When they are delivered in the second half of 2014, Petrobras will use the PSLVs offshore in Brazil.

Marcelo, 27, has been working on the project since the bid prospecting stage. He has played an active role in several stages and is currently responsible for the final items of physical infrastructure and offshore equipment. The trip to Korea was the culmination of a gradual process of “leaving home.” It started when he left his hometown,

Ourinhos, São Paulo, to study in the state capital.

Then he he went to school in the United States as an exchange student and lived in Rio de Janeiro before setting off on his own to the Far East.

“Mobility is in the company’s blood, and it has always been in my nature,” he says.

Adapting to Korean cuisine was a challenge. It includes rice, soups, noodles, meat, and fried or fermented vegetables with plenty of hot pepper.

Marcelo says that learning to enjoy the local food helped strengthen his ties with his co-workers. He recalls that when they were working at the shipyard one Sunday, his Korean co-workers ordered a large quantity of local food for lunch. “They ordered sandwiches for me and two other foreigners. We thanked them but declined. We wanted to eat the food that everyone else was eating. That helped us bond as a team.”

The Koreans, in turn, have adapted well to the Odebrecht Culture, according to Marcelo. “A Korean co-worker pointed out one of the company’s strong points: when a problem arises, the main concern is not to find out who is to blame, but to work together to solve the problem. That is new to them.”

Support for newcomers The person in charge of introducing the project members to the Group’s Culture is Fabio Sousa, 33, the officer Responsible for People and Organization at Geoje. He provides support for

newcomers to Korea. Fabio arrived in that country just over a year ago. He almost turned down the invitation to move to the Far East in late 2012.

Before saying yes, he needed the approval of his wife, Flávia, 34, and daughter, Kathleen, 15.

Flávia agreed on the spot, but Kathleen started crying when she heard the news. It took a month and several long talks to convince her. One talk with Fabio’s mother-in-law was decisive and he finally managed to change her mind.

In March 2013, two months after their arrival, just when the teenager was getting used to classes taught in English at the international school, some members’ families had to be evacuated due to the worsening military tension between the two Koreas. In all, three families – Fabio’s and those of two Indian colleagues – were sent home. Because of that episode, Fabio undertook the responsibility of preparing a detailed evacuation plan with the help of a partner, International SOS. “Today, in an emergency, all we have to do is activate the plan, which includes risk monitoring, assigned meeting places, and escape procedures.”

Months later, the risk of military conflict subsided and the families were able to return. Today, Fabio’s family feels right at home. His daughter speaks English fluently and has lots of friends at school, where she is one of the best students.

“Now I have a different ‘problem’: she doesn’t want to hear about leaving,” says Fabio. ]

π “Mobility is in the company’s blood and it has always been in my nature,” says naval engineer Marcelo Pedro

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FAMILIAR CHALLENGES THE SUPPORT AND PRESENCE OF SPOUSES AND CHILDREN MAKE THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKING ABROAD EVEN MORE FULFILLING Written by Cibelle Silva | Photos by Dimitrius Beck

Angola, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon, and now, the USA. This is the life Marcus Bandeira, 33, always wanted. “As a kid, I used to read Geografia Universal (Universal Geography), a magazine about the countries and people I dreamed of visiting one day. Today, Odebrecht is my ‘universal geography,’ but with a different component: now I’m part of the story, helping the main characters – the entrepreneurs – amid the kind of diversity that no camera could ever capture,” says Marcus, who was born in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, has a business degree, and joined the Group nine years ago.

He is now the officer Responsible for People and Controllership on the ASCENT (Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise) project. Led by Odebrecht Ambiental and carried out in partnership with Odebrecht Infraestrutura, Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial and Braskem, this project is studying the feasibility of investing in a petrochemical complex in the US state of West Virginia. Marcus started out at Odebrecht as a Young Partner in 2006, working in Rio de Janeiro. Six months later, he took on a challenge in Angola, where he worked in the areas of infrastructure and real estate.

“Making sure that our work gets good results isn’t an easy job, even more so when you’re dealing with a different culture. I spent four years taking in new experiences. We had 14 jobsites going at once and constantly faced the challenges of logistics, mobilizing the workforce, and cultural diversity,” he recalls.

When he took part in the process of winning the bid for the Teles Pires Dam on the state line of Mato Grosso and Pará, and mobilizing prior to breaking ground, he spent 18 months in a remote part of the Amazon. “Even though we were still in Brazil, the cultural differences were huge. Maybe even bigger than the ones I experienced in Angola and the US,” he says.

Although he insists that traveling the world is a pleasure, Marcus allows that, on the personal side, there is always some area that needs work. “Our parents want us to live close by, but I think it is a comfort for them to know that, even though we’re far away, we feel a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment every day.”

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Marcus and his wife, Karen, got married four years ago, and she has been an Odebrecht member for eight years. Marcus stresses the importance of his wife’s support – she goes with him everywhere he travels.

“Leaving the comforts of São Paulo and going to live in the Amazon wasn’t easy for her, but after living on the jobsite she came to love it. Now she keeps asking me when we’ll be taking on a similar challenge,” he says, laughing. These days, Marcus is based at Odebrecht Ambiental’s office in Houston, Texas.

Work is not the only way Marcus has found to rediscover himself. The father of Maria Luiza, who is just a year old, he and his wife are taking care of their child without a nanny or the support of relatives. “I kid around with her, saying she has no idea how many parts of the world she’ll be calling home,” says Marcus.

Now we are five Civil engineer Marcelo Moacyr was born in Rio de Janeiro. He is 53 years old and has spent 16 of those years at Odebrecht. The father of three adopted children, Julia, 13, Gabriel, 9, and Arthur, 4, he underscores the importance of family as a solid basis for working as an expat. “It is key to have a partner at your side who will share the good times and the difficulties with you. A good family structure replete with trust is one of the secrets for success,” he observes.

Marcelo joined the Group in 1996, in the United States, where he worked on building construction projects in Miami. “Despite being a seasoned professional, my acculturation was natural, since the principles of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology [TEO] were very similar to my personal values.”

During that period, he had the opportunity to work directly with Marcelo Odebrecht, the President and CEO of Odebrecht S.A., who was the Project Director for those ventures at the time.

“Taking on challenges in a different country with a different culture is a highly complex undertaking.

The first culture shock is the language. No matter how well you speak English, fluency in the language can take a while and you need to hit the ground

π A solid family structure is one of the “secrets,” according to Marcelo Moacyr (in the photo with his wife, Angela, and children Julia, Arthur, and Gabriel)

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π Karen, Marcus and daughter, Maria Luiza: "We feel a sense of fulfillment every day.”

running. Another interesting point is the way they do business. The United States is a country where the legal and contractual conditions are different from the ones we have in Brazil,” he explains.

Marcelo and his wife Angela, better known as Gigi, began a process of adoption from Brazil. There were surprises before the happy ending. “We adopted Julia when she was two days old, but we didn’t know that US law says you must stay in the country of origin of the adoption for two years before living in the United States,” he explains. Because of that, Gigi returned to Brazil and, for eight months, Marcelo shuttled back and forth between the US and São Paulo. When he returned to Brazil, Marcelo decided to take over his family business. Then, in early 2004, when he was thinking of returning to the Group, he and his wife received more good news: the arrival of Gabriel, their second adopted child.

In 2005, Marcelo got an invitation to return to the Group. The challenge was once again in the United States, working on the project at Miami Airport. “At the time there were four of us. We shipped all our things to Miami. There were lots of crates!” Later on that year, he was invited to take on another challenge in Brazil. “It was something like, we are putting the team together. Are you in? My answer was: if the organization needs me, and I can help, why not?” The numerous crates that had traveled from the fourth floor of an apartment building in São Paulo to Miami

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returned just six months later to the same building, this time to the ninth floor.

Back in Brazil, from 2006 to 2011, Marcelo worked on the team of the Bairro Novo company, which was later consolidated under Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias (OR). During his interview with Odebrecht Informa, he returned to the subject of family: “I was in a meeting and saw I had a call from Gigi. I didn’t answer, but she kept calling. She sent a text message saying it was urgent and I should call her back right away, but not to worry, it was a good thing. And indeed it was." Arthur, their third child, had been “born.” Marcelo told us that after adopting Julia and Gabriel, he had not hoped to be contacted again, nor did he remember applying for an adoption from a rural town in the state of Paraná. Smiling, he says that Gigi told him, “Since I couldn’t get hold of you, I made the decision for both of us. I said yes.”

In late 2011, he received another invitation to work in the United States, this time at Odebrecht Ambiental. He now lives in Houston and is part of the New Businesses team. “It was a unique and challenging opportunity. So off we went. Now there were five of us,” Marcelo recalls, laughing. “For the kids, the experience of living in different cultures is enriching because it makes them respect and appreciate diversity and expands their horizons very early on,” says Gigi.

Marcelo adds, “You form an even stronger bond and leave your comfort zone, but with lots of love.” ]

A R G U M E N T

A PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT BORDERS T E I V E

R O C H A Américo Vermelho

L U I Z

“OUR CULTURE IS PRACTICED EVERYWHERE I’VE BEEN”

I left the country for the first time in 1984, bound for Peru, when Odebrecht was starting to internationalize its operations. Four years later, I was back in Brazil and took charge of the Port of Sergipe project, and then went on to work on the contract to expand terminal 1 at Rio de Janeiro International Airport (Galeão). I went abroad again in 1990, and spent six years in Ecuador, 13 in the US and four in Portugal. The road we have traveled has been very rewarding for my family and me. We’ve learned to live with diversity and respect and assimilate unique cultural traits. Today, as a result of the lessons we’ve learned, we have a more flexible outlook on the world and life.

The most interesting thing is being able to say that the Group’s Culture is practiced easily everywhere I’ve been.

Living the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO) is very simple and knows no borders, because its concepts and values are universally human. Open, transparent communication, the ethos of service, people development, delegation of responsibility, trust, confidence, and a downto-earth attitude are wonderfully applicable in any culture.

When bidding for contracts for Miami airport in the US or the Moatize mine in Mozambique, and in the operation to extract our people from Libya, practicing TEO was key to

getting successful results. There were people from many different nationalities who were motivated and united when taking on specific missions with common goals in line with their Action Programs. Especially when times were tough, the ethos of service prevailed, because it didn’t matter where they came from; everyone pitched in to help get the desired results.

Now, I am landing at Galeão to take on yet another challenge with great expectations of making improvements that Rio and Brazil both deserve so much. My entire career at Odebrecht has been based on improving people’s quality of life through the transformations provided by infrastructure works. Now, through a long-term concession in Brazil, that transformation will not only be made by construction works but especially through the daily pursuit of improving the experience of all the airport’s users. To work with me on this challenge, in which the ethos of service will be a hallmark in relations with passengers, airlines, government agencies, and service providers, we are mobilizing people from within the Group, some with international experience, others with experience in Brazil, and hiring people with the necessary knowledge of airport operations. The diversity of our partners and team will be combined with the practice of TEO. Because of its human values, [our philosophy] will be rapidly experienced and assimilated by our new members and practiced by everyone with the goal of restoring the Brazilian people’s pride in their Galeão Airport, and convincing foreign visitors that, as [Brazilian singer/songwriter] Gilberto Gil says, “Rio de Janeiro is still lovely.” ]

Born in Rio de Janeiro and raised in Bahia, Luiz Teive Rocha is responsible for the Rio de Janeiro International Airport (Antônio Carlos Jobim/ Galeão) concession, whose partners include Odebrecht, Changi Airport (Singapore) and Infraero.

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π Ash Vijaykumar, from India, with her Chinese colleague Yunwei Tong: first experience at the jobsite

SO DIFFERENT AND SO EQUAL IN THE UNITED STATES, ODEBRECHT REFLECTS ONE OF THAT COUNTRY’S MAIN CHARACTERISTICS: ETHNIC DIVERSITY

Written by Luciana Lana | Photos by Dimitrius Beck

It is not hard to think of diversity when speaking of Odebrecht’s presence in America. The US has been the world’s largest recipient of immigrants since the seventeenth century, when English colonization began. According to the 2010 census, foreigners account for about 35% of the American population. Most are of Hispanic origin: 50 million, representing 16.3% of the population. Asians, in turn, are the fastest-growing group: they total 14.6 million and make up 4.7% of the population. Odebrecht reflects this characteristic of the country.

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Far beyond the American “melting pot,” immigration should be scrutinized attentively and without generalizations. That advice comes from David Peebles, the officer Responsible for Business Development on the ASCENT (Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise) project, when asked about the diversity in that country, and specifically at Odebrecht. The project is studying the feasibility of investing in a petrochemical complex in the US state of West Virginia. “Each of the five regions in which we operate has diverse ethnic, geographical, cultural, and economic characteristics. It is important to

know about the process of settlement in those regions to understand what is going on in each of them,” he says.

Present in the United States for 24 years, and based in Miami, Florida, from the very start, Odebrecht is now active in several businesses in that country: Construction, Industrial Engineering, Oil & Gas, Environmental Engineering, and Chemicals & Petrochemicals. It currently has over 2,000 members from 33 nationalities and is working on projects in the states of Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and West Virginia.

On the shelves of David Peebles’s office in Houston, Texas, there are several books on the settlement of US territory. On his desk, there is a study on the growing Asian presence in Houston.

The fourth-largest city in the United States and the second most populous city in Texas, Houston is a multicultural metropolis. Based on the oil business,

its economic growth has offered job opportunities that attract people from all parts of the country as well as abroad. The city is home to NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and the Texas Medical Center, the largest complex of medical institutions in the world.

Odebrecht has offices in several buildings in the city. Odebrecht Corretora de Seguros (OCS), the Group’s captive brokerage, is based in the same building where David works. Beatriz Schiesari is the company’s Risk and Insurance Manager, providing support for Braskem. A Brazilian national, she has lived in the United States for seven years. “Adapting to this country depends on each individual’s degree of openness,” she says. According to Beatriz, the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO) ensures the harmony of the teams and the longevity of the businesses: “Adaptation happens on both sides.

It’s a two-way street: to be successful, it depends

π David Peebles (right) at Texan Richard Vásquez’s barbershop in Houston: “It’s important to understand the settlement process in different regions”

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on who arrives and who welcomes them, while TEO consolidates and unifies their principles.”

Ricardo Unzer, from Argentina, is a Director at Odebrecht Procurement, also based in Houston.

He provides support for all the Group’s industrial projects in several countries. “We are proud of our Brazilian origins and our global presence,” he says, “But our goal is to become a local business in every country and every community.” Next door to him, also on the ground floor of the building, Gustavo Silveira, a Brazilian Project Director for Odebrecht United States, adds, “The beauty of our business is being connected to a higher purpose that outweighs any cultural differences.”

Family and unity “Mobility and flexibility are requirements for any professional in a global company,” argues Rami Nassar, a Project Manager at Zachry-Odebrecht

Parkway Builders (ZOPB), the joint venture that will build about 60 km of highways in Houston, including 50 bridges, drainage infrastructure and electronic toll plazas. The USD 1.1 billion project will be part of the Grand Parkway, a complex that will run through seven counties in the Houston metropolitan area, benefiting nearly 7 million people.

Rami has worked on several other Odebrecht projects, not only in the United States (in Miami and New Orleans) but also in the UAE and Angola.

He left Lebanon for over 20 years ago to study civil engineering at the University of North Carolina in the USA. “The family’s support is key,” he says, accompanied by his Lebanese wife, Hiba Nassar, and their daughter Lana, a little over two years old, who was born in New Orleans. Based on many years of experience in the United States, Rami believes he has acquired the American style of working: “In the Middle East, as well as in Brazil, people take a long

π Remi (with his wife, Hiba, and daughter, Lana) says Americans taught him to get straight to the point

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π Danie (with her daughter, Dege) emphasizes the importance of work to social assimilation

time to get to the point. The Americans have taught me to be direct,” he says.

It is no different for Ash Vijaykumar, a Project Engineer from India who is working on the Grand Parkway project. She also says she has acquired the “American way of working.” Ash went to the US to study at the University of Minnesota. Homesick for her family, she returned to India, but after two years she decided to go to Texas, where she did her Masters in Civil Engineering at A&M University. “Indian society frowns on women studying engineering. Even my friends told me to opt for a more feminine area within that field, like design or technology. But my parents supported me,” she says.

In Texas, Ash is taking on the challenge of working directly at the jobsite for the first time, coordinating a team of people from different countries: “I had never had any field experience. It is motivating and nerve-wracking at the same time,” she says. Ash believes that cultural diversity is an opportunity to learn different approaches to the same issues. “This expands the possibilities of dealing with challenges,” she emphasizes.

Married to an Indian man who lives in London because he works in the oil business, Ash says she has lost most of her habits from her home country: “I liked to dance, so I enrolled in a school of Indian dance in Houston, but I only went once. I also don’t follow the Hindu religion, like my parents. I sometimes even visit temples here in town, but only to meet people and talk about India.” Friends from work are her family there: “They take care of me,” she says with a smile.

Born in Haiti, Danie Charles, the People Manager on the Grand Parkway project, stresses the importance of work in the process of social assimiliation and unity. She goes on to say, “This is my second marriage – this time, to my job.” During her first marriage, to a soldier, Danie got used to moving frequently. Fluent in four languages, she has lived in the United States since her teens and joined Odebrecht’s Accounting area in Miami six years ago.

Last year, she moved to Houston.

On the Grand Parkway project, which involves over a thousand professionals from 19 countries, Danie interviews about 20 people from a wide range of nationalities every day. “They ask me where I’m from, which gives me a chance to teach them a little about my country. That leads to an enriching dialogue. That’s Houston: an exchange of experiences among people from all over the world.” ]

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THE PLEASURE OF FEELING AT HOME ODEBRECHT MEMBERS IN ECUADOR, BOTH EXPATS AND REPATS, ARE BUILDING A PRODUCTIVE AND MOTIVATING ENVIRONMENT Written by Cláudio Lovato Filho | Photos by Holanda Cavalcanti

π Lennon, Juliana and baby Júlia: after a veritable saga, the couple is finally together

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“Mom, I’ve got to go because I have to give you a better life.” With those words, Lennon Almeida left his parents’ home and went to live in Angola in 2007, at the age of 26. He was leaving behind a peaceful life in the Bonfim district of Salvador, Bahia, where he was born. What lay ahead was an Africa he knew little about. Three years later, a different Lennon gifted his parents with a house in the neighborhood where he grew up. He was a changed man thanks to his exposure to a new culture and all the benefits that can bring.

Lennon, who got his name from his mother’s admiration for the eponymous Beatle, has a business degree from Jorge Amado University. When he joined Odebrecht in 2001 as an intern on Construtora Norberto Odebrecht’s People team, he was 20 years old. A year later, he was transferred to Odebrecht Corretora de Seguros (OCS), the captive brokerage that he considers the “bedrock” of his professional life. After graduating in 2004, he became a Young Partner. That same year, he ran into Genésio Couto, then the Odebrecht officer Responsible for Administration and Finance in Angola, in a Salvador restaurant. That chance encounter led to the invitation that took Lennon to Africa.

“It was a tough decision,” recalls Lennon. “I was in my comfort zone in Salvador, both personally and professionally, but I wanted more. I needed to challenge myself.” His three years in Angola were a time of learning experiences. "Coming into contact with Angola’s culture was a watershed in my life,” says Lennon. While there, he met Juliana, a civil engineer who also worked at Odebrecht. They soon started dating. In 2010, their careers took separate paths, because she went to work on the Transnordestina Railway in her home state of Pernambuco, Brazil, and Lennon was invited to work in Peru. They proved the pessimists wrong by getting engaged in January 2010, spending three days a month together, either in Bahia or in Pernambuco.

Lennon returned to Brazil in 2011 to work at ETH (now Odebrecht Agroindustrial). In May of that year, Lennon and Juliana got married. He was living in São Paulo and she was still based in Pernambuco.

“For seven months we only saw each other one weekend a month,” says Lennon. Then, in November 2011, Juliana was invited to work in Mexico and Lennon managed to get an Action Program in that country. Finally, Lennon and Juliana were able to live together like any conventional married couple.

Two years later, he took charge of a new program in the field of Administration and Communication in Ecuador, led by Geraldo Souza, the officer

Responsible for Administration and Finance in that country, where Juliana also got a work opportunity. Their daughter, Júlia, was born in Quito in December 2013.

“I started working at the age of 11, at an uncle’s restaurant. I’ve always paid my way through school, and I started helping my parents early on.

Now I have a family, a daughter,” says Lennon, moments before taking the Odebrecht Informa team to his home. During their visit, they took photos of the family, which clearly shares a powerful bond.

“Young people who want to work on an international program must build up a very solid base for their career in the Group. And they must always being careful to avoid falling into that comfort zone,” he concludes.

Returning home The city of Guayaquil is less than an hour by plane from Quito, where Lennon and his family live.

That is where Odebrecht is developing the DauleVinces irrigation project. A group of 20 Ecuadorian professionals is working on that venture. They are repats who have returned home after working on Odebrecht projects abroad. Ecuador, where Odebrecht has been present since 1987, has firmly established its reputation as a school for honing company members’ skills and preparing them to take on the Group’s challenges around the globe.

This is the case with Leoncio López, 57, from Píllaro in Tungurahua Province. The officer Responsible for Engineering on the Daule-Vinces project, he has a degree in Civil Engineering from Amabato Technical University (UTA). He joined Odebrecht in 1990, starting out on the Santa Elena irrigation project. Leoncio then went on to work in Libya for two years, where he helped build the Third Ring Road in Tripoli.

“That was my most gratifying experience, both personally and professionally,” he says. “I interacted with a culture that was very different from the one I grew up in, and spoke a completely foreign language. Over time, I adapted and managed to make a contribution to the success of that project and the deployment of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology [TEO]. The most satisfying thing about that experience was helping mentor several Libyan professionals.” From the language – Arabic – to the food, which he initially found very exotic, from architecture to everyday habits, for which the Muslim religion is the main reference, Leoncio discovered a new reality that was very different from his native Ecuador, and broadened his horizons.

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Time to go home For many Odebrecht Ecuador members, their experience in Angola has been key to improving their ability to make a contribution. After returning to their native country, they practice what they learned from their experience in Africa.

Architect Gilberto Salustiano Zambrano, 34, is from Calceta, in the province of Manabi. Now the officer Responsible for Measurements and Costs on the Daule-Vinces project, he joined Odebrecht in 2004. Four years later, after a little more than two years of marriage to Adriana, a psychologist, he went to Angola. He worked on the Cambambe Dam project there for eighteen months. “I got to know a lot of people who have made me grow as a person and a professional,” he says. “I gained a better understanding of the situations we confront from day to day. It broadened my horizons.”

Byron Andrade, 43, is a mining engineer from Quito. He joined Odebrecht in 2003 to work on the San Francisco Dam project. In February 2009, he set off for Angola on his own, leaving behind his wife, Cristina, who was pregnant at the time. “When I went to Africa I was heartsick and had more doubts than certainties, but I was also sure that I had made the right decision,” he recalls. Byron arrived in Luanda speaking little Portuguese and dearly missing his family. “The first question I asked myself was: What am I doing here? That was a question that only time could answer.” He soon adapted during the daily work routine on the Gove Dam project and came to enjoy that unique experience, which lasted three years.

“Getting to know a different culture made me more sensitive and humane,” says the father of María Salette, now five years old.

Ricardo Mazzutti, 59, is not an Ecuadorian repat, but he, too, considers Angola a major milestone in his personal and professional life.

Born in the southern Brazilian city of Itaqui, he has a degree in Geology and joined Odebrecht in 1988. His first project was the Capanda hydroelectric plant in Angola. After that initial four-year stint in Africa, he returned to Brazil to work on bids for tenders. He went back to Africa (Angola and Botswana) in 1997, returned to Brazil to work on the Itá Dam, and later went on to work on Odebrecht projects in the Dominican Republic, Djibouti, once again in Angola, then in Peru, and finally, in Ecuador, where he arrived in 2012.

“My two kids learned to read in Angola,” says Ricardo. “The support I received from my wife, Raquel, was decisive when I decided to accept the proposal to go to Africa. Our daughter, Tanara, was 8 months old, and our son, Maximiliano, was 4 when we went to Angola. We were sharing dreams, believing together,” says Ricardo, who is now the Construction Manager on the Daule-Vinces project. He adds that, no matter where he goes, he has never failed to keep around a gourd of Yerba Mate – a traditional beverage for Brazilians from Rio Grande do Sul – and offer it to everyone who visits his office. The same thing happened with the Odebrecht Informa reporter, who is from the same state, and naturally accepted.

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π Quito’s Historic Center: religion is strongly present

π Foreground, from the center, from left, Ricardo Mazzutti, Hugo Gaibor (black pants), Byron Andrade, Leoncio López, and Salustiano Zambrano. Except for Ricardo and Rubem da Silva (seated on the pickup truck, second from left, in the front row), all of them are Ecuadorian repats

He returned to Ecuador and the home he shares with his wife, Ruth, and children José Estebán, Adriana Lissette and Jorge Andrés, in 2011. Proud of the service he provided to that Arab country and the lessons he learned during his two-year stay there, he says that he returned to his homeland with a much deeper knowledge of TEO. That enabled him to deal respectfully and productively with a culture that is very different from his own.

Systems Engineer Hugo Gaibor, 47, a native of Guayaquil, followed a similar path. Now the officer Responsible for Administration at DauleVinces, he joined Odebrecht in 1988, and also worked on the Santa Elena irrigation project. He spent some time in Quito as Odebrecht’s IT officer in that country, and then returned to the jobsites, working on four major projects in different parts of Ecuador.

Then, in 2009, he went to Angola and worked in Luanda and Benguela. The family – his wife, Gloria, and three children, Hugo, Gabriela and Victor – stayed behind in Ecuador. When Hugo arrived in Angola, he spoke very little Portuguese.

He devoted himself to learning about the history of that country, which had just ended a decade of armed conflict, obtained information about the different ethnic groups, their languages and customs, traveled, sampled the cuisine, and took part in celebrations. “I came into very close contact with the Angolan culture,” says Hugo. In 2010, he returned to Ecuador. “It was a very enriching experience. Our family ties are stronger. In work and in life, an experience like this makes you more mature, less naive, consolidates knowledge, and underscores the importance of being modest, downto-earth, and respectful.” ]

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ฯ Jorge Manuel in Havana: enduring ties with Cuba

THE VAGARIES OF LIFE ANGOLA, A COUNTRY WHERE ODEBRECHT HAS BEEN PRESENT FOR 30 YEARS, TEACHES INDELIBLE LESSONS THROUGH WORK

Written by Eduardo Souza Lima | Photos by Kamene Traรงa

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In September – the month the contract to build the Capanda hydroelectric plant was signed – Odebrecht will mark the 30th anniversary of its presence in Angola. The dam project was a joint venture with the Russian company Technopromexport, so Odebrecht’s relationship with Angola was born under the sign of multiculturalism. This three-decade history is made up of many life stories. Born in São Bento do Sapucaí, São Paulo, Marcus Azeredo, the Project Director for the Lauca Dam, has lived in Angola for 14 years and witnessed tremendous changes during that time.

Construction of Capanda came to a halt four times because of armed conflicts within the country that lasted from 1975 to 2002. The project was being resumed for the fourth and last time when he arrived at Luanda Airport. “At that time, the flight arrived at night and, from the air, the first impression I got was that the city was dimly lit,” he recalls.

When Azeredo arrived in Angola, the conflicts were still going on. Today, the country is a huge construction site. “I originally planned to spend two years here, and one of the factors that encouraged me to stay was the knowledge that I would be an agent of that reconstruction and transformation process; that I could make a difference here,” he says.

Four years later, Azeredo’s wife and daughter moved to that country for good. Now 17, Luisa is a typical Angolan teenager. The couple’s youngest, Francisco, is 7 years old. He was born later and is learning to read in that country. “My wife, Ana Lúcia, had a hard time adjusting at first. Today, she is well acclimated,” says Azeredo, who is a supporter of the Santos soccer team, but also has room in his heart for an Angolan squad: “Here I root for 1o de Agosto. Angolans are very similar to Brazilians – they love music and soccer. It took me a while to get used to the food here, but now, whenever I can, I take the opportunity to eat funge [an Angolan dish based on corn meal or cassava flour] at the homes of Angolan colleagues on Saturdays.”

Jorge Manuel Silva took the opposite route.

Better known as “Sapo” (“Toad”), he has been working in Havana for five years as a member of the team reporting directly to the Odebrecht CEO in that country, Mauro Hueb. He is the Group’s first Angolan expat. “Today I say that I spend two weeks in Angola on holiday, but I live in Cuba. One of the great things about working at Odebrecht is making lots of friends. Everywhere you go, you find one big family.”

Sapo’s connection with Odebrecht began before he joined the company. It also started during

π Marcus: from São Bento de Sapucaí, Brazil, to rural Angola

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Ď€ From left, JonatĂŁo Timoteo, Arnaldo Heitor, Lauren Pereira, Joaquim Carvalho and Jurandy Moreira: a pleasant and productive relationship

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the period of armed conflict. “I joined the Group in October 1992, working in Administration. But because I was in the military in 1984 and it was necessary to build Capanda, I was responsible for security at the jobsite,” he explains.

Sapo’s relationship with Cuba also goes way back, dating from his army days due to the military agreement between the two countries. Even before moving there, Havana was practically his second home. “I have old friends here. They are a cheerful people like the Angolans. Cuba is a mixed-race country like Brazil, and like Angola will be in the future,” he says. But labor relations on the Caribbean island held pleasant surprises: “There is no illiteracy here. The level of education is very high, and the willingness to learn is even greater.”

were 700 people living in the accommodations, and every part of Brazil was represented.”

On the Catata-Lóvua highway, which Odebrecht is building in the province of Lunda Norte, the teacher Joaquim Carvalho is finding his roots. Born in Luanda, he says, “My job is to bring education, basic concepts about health, to the villages along that route. I had a similar experience in the city of Lubango, but this is my first time in this part of the country.” He joined the company four years ago, and has the privilege of sharing knowledge with peoples like the Lundas, Bangalas, Xinjes, Lubas, Kaketes, Kafias and Bakongos. Not only that, but he has also acquired some Brazilian customs: “I like [Brazilian pop singer] Roberto Carlos and sometimes I ask my wife to cook black beans.”

Coffee in the fridge Grooming local professionals has always been a priority for Odebrecht in Angola. Jonatão Timoteo is a good example of this ongoing effort. The Administrative Officer for the Cambambe Dam Project, this Angolan company member is now pursuing a graduate degree in Rio de Janeiro. “I haven’t met the girl from Ipanema yet, but I’m almost a Carioca [native of Rio],” he says.

A former soldier like Sapo, he joined the Group 15 years ago. “I remember the first time I was offered some ‘fresh’ coffee. ‘Fresh’ in Angola means cold. I thought they kept the coffee in the fridge,” he observes with a smile. Brazil’s famous novelas – nighttime soaps – helped familiarize him with the Brazilian way of life, but when it came to the method used in the workplace, he was in for some culture shock: “We Angolans really respect the pecking order. Odebrecht delegates power,” he explains.

Jurandy dos Santos Moreira, the General Supervisor on the Real Estate Developments Project, is Brazilian. After seven years in Angola, he has adopted a local custom without reservations: “I introduced the custom of the family meeting in my home. They always get together to discuss their problems. It is a beautiful awareness,” he says. Best known as “Nem,” he was born in Retirolândia, Bahia.

He tried his luck at mining in the state of Goiás before moving to Salvador, the capital of his home state, where he got a job at Odebrecht. From there, he went straight to Luanda, Angola. When he arrived in that city, he also found out more about his own country. “I came across a variety of cultures. I had heard of Cariocas, but I’d never met one. There

Respect for differences Lauren Pereira, the officer Responsible for the SODEPAC Project’s Kukula Ku Moxi Social Program, is the US-born daughter of Cubans and studied in France. She began working at Odebrecht four years ago in her hometown, Miami, Florida.

After spending some time in Guinea-Conakry, she has been living in Malanje, Angola, for a year. “On my first day at the company, even in the USA, I discovered that everyone spoke Portuguese! And I had studied French! That was my first culture shock,” she recalls with a twinkle in her eye. “During my time with the Group, I’ve had leaders from Rio, Bahia and Pernambuco, on projects with Portuguese and Angolan Project Directors.” Lauren is adjusting well to the country’s cultural life. She introduced the Odebrecht Informa team to the Elinga Theatre, a space for artistic resistance in Luanda.

Born in Cartaxo, Portugal, Specialist Technician Arnaldo Heitor has been with Odebrecht for 15 years, six of them in Angola. Based at the CatataLóvua Project, he says that, initially, his greatest difficulty was getting used to the Brazilian names for machines and tools. “I kept hearing about giraffes and donkeys and wondered: am I at a construction site or a zoo?” he laughs. Girafa (literally, “giraffe”) is the Brazilian term for an articulated elevator platform, and a jerica (“female donkey”) is a wheelbarrow. Arnaldo has a sound theory about his rapid adaptation to working in Angola: “I’ve found one thing that all three nations and Odebrecht’s entrepreneurial philosophy have in common, which makes multiculturalism work so well: respect for differences.” ]

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LEARNING TOGETHER THE SONAREF PROJECT TEAM IN ANGOLA CONSISTS OF PEOPLE FROM 18 COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE

Written by Eduardo Souza Lima | Photos by Kamene Traça

“Working here is like doing a cultural exchange program in 18 countries at once,” says Flávia Gabriela Oyo França, the Sustainability (Environment and Social Programs) Manager for the SONAREF project.

The official language at the jobsite is English, but on any given day, you can hear 10 different languages spoken. There are 1,840 people working on this project: in addition to Brazilians and Angolans, there are company members from Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Peru, Bolivia, China, Croatia, Egypt, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, India, the UK, Italy, Mauritania, and Mexico.

Managing this cultural diversity is a complex challenge. “You have to take care of laundry, transportation, weekend recreational activities and food.

And every culture has its unique traits: Indians don’t eat beef, Muslims don’t eat pork, and Americans are not used to the very Brazilian combo of rice and beans,” explains Administrative and Financial Manager Rogério Ferreira da Silva, who hails from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. “Brazilians have different eating habits, depending on which part of the country they’re from,” adds Flávia Tavares Britto, the officer Responsible for the Management team, who is from the northeastern state of Bahia.

The SONAREF oil refinery is under construction in Benguela Province, in the coastal city of Lobito, 515 km from Luanda. When operating at full capacity, it will process 200,000 barrels per day. Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer, after Nigeria.

This is a strategic project for the country, because the goal is to become an exporter of refined petroleum products and not just crude oil. Odebrecht is currently doing the preliminary earthmoving for the project and building access roads for heavy cargoes and a marine terminal.

Project Director Pablo Mensitieri Mattos comes from Rio de Janeiro. He joined the company as an intern and has lived in Angola for nine years. “I had already lived in this country as a child because my

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π Flávia Gabriela, Ramesh, Shanavas and Gurnam: dishes from their home countries ease homesickness

father worked here too. Its culture is very similar to ours. The people are very cheerful. It was easy to get used to the local customs,” he says. But he had a harder time adapting to several different cultures at once. “For example, if you need to ask a Brazilian for something, first you have to talk about soccer, ask about their family. Some people from other nationalities get straight to the point,” he explains.

“Muslims fast during the holy month of Ramadan, the Chinese take a nap after lunch. Every culture has its own customs and traditions, and we

all have to respect each other and reconcile their habits with ours,” says Flávia Gabriela, from Brasilia.

Flávia Britto has lived in Angola for four and a half years. Rogério Ferreira arrived more recently, just over a year ago, but before that he spent three and a half years in Libya and 18 months in Portugal.

“Because Odebrecht is a global company, many people working here have been in other countries. This makes our cultural melting pot even more diverse,” says Flávia Gabriela. “When projects were demobilized in other countries, such as Liberia, Guinea,

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π Belter (left) and Mariano enjoy coming in contact with diversity

Ghana, Mozambique, and Libya, we took that opportunity to form this team, because we also needed people who spoke English, since the company supervising the project [Kellogg, Brown and Root KBR] is American,” explains Rogério.

The world at the jobsite Workplace Safety Technician Daniel Charrua and Costs Officer Hugo Nobre are both Portuguese.

They worked together in Libya, so they were already friends when they arrived in Lobito. They meet up on Wednesdays and Sundays to listen to the Lisbon rock band Xutos & Pontapés and watch Benfica soccer matches while enjoying Portuguese delicacies. Those meetings have also have attracted people from other countries such as Brazilians Freddy Jorge (Responsible for Costs and Subcontractors) and Américo Pereira (Responsible for Purchasing), both of whom have been in Angola for seven years. They add to the culinary diversity by mixing Brazilian cornmeal couscous and cheese buns with Portuguese chorizo and smoked sausage.

Shanavas Valappil and Ramesh Babu (both members of the Document Control team for the Contract Management Area), Nikhil Agarwal (Engineering) and Gurnam Singh Bal (Workplace Safety) are all from India and met in Liberia. They deal with their homesickness at the dinner table every night.

“The food here is good, but for our keen palates, it

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is slightly over seasoned,” says chef Valappil tactfully. He seasons his dishes with hot pepper - lots of hot pepper of various kinds. At the end of the workday, the accommodations are like an Olympic Park. While Angolans, Brazilians, and Peruvians kick a ball around on the soccer pitch, Filipinos and Americans shoot hoops, and the Indians play cricket on the multipurpose playing court.

And what about the people who are on their home turf? How have they made the most of this cultural diversity? Engineer Belter José Cordeiro da Silva, from the Production area, was born in Luanda but has never worked in his hometown. “I grew up in Luanda, but once I graduated I went to work in Malanje. Now I’m here. I’ve learned that when you join Odebrecht you get a new nationality. There’s an American, a Portuguese, a Croatian, and a Brazilian on my team. I’m always learning something new.

It’s important to keep an open mind and heart.

It was hard at first because my English was rusty, but numbers and goals speak the same language.”

His Angolan co-worker Mariano Simão Cristóvão, whose first project at the company was also helping build roads in Malanje province and the Biocom (Bioenergy Company of Angola) project, has taken the opportunity to get to know his own country better. “Working with people from other countries is a great experience, but even in Angola, there are many different habits and customs.” ]

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Ď€ Bruno with his wife, Susana, and daughters in Maputo: witnessing Mozambique's development

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INVENTING REAL LIFE THEY CAME FROM PORTUGAL, COLOMBIA, AND BRAZIL TO EXPERIENCE DISCOVERIES AND CHANGE IN MOZAMBIQUE Written by Shirley Emerick | Photos by Américo Vermelho

Bruno, Jesús, and José Roberto left behind the comfort, convenience, and company of good friends and relatives to tackle fresh challenges in Mozambique as Odebrecht members. Now, on the East Coast of Africa, they and their families are getting to know a different culture. Their current lifestyles are relatively modest, but they all recognize that this is an extremely rewarding learning experience.

By the time he brought his family there from Portugal in 2012, Bruno Medeiros had visited schools, markets, hospitals, and gated communities in Maputo. This was the third time he had left his home country to work for Odebrecht as an expat. He concluded that Mozambique would be a good place to live for his daughter Rita, 9, and wife, Susana Neves, who was six months pregnant. “I immediately identified with the city, and that bolstered my confidence,” she says.

Their daughter Laura was born in a local hospital.

Now she is nearly 2, and like a good Mozambican, she loves everything that involves rhythm, music, and dance.

During those two years, Rita, their elder child, has overcome her shyness, experienced situations in which she surmounted some fears, and now she is making the most of the facilities of communication technology to keep in touch with the friends she left behind in Portugal. At her sister’s first birthday party, in Coimbra, Portugal, she surprised the family by getting together with two cousins and putting on a show with songs, choreographed dances, and costumes. They had organized and rehearsed it all via Skype, without any adult interference. “I thought about a surprise for Laura’s anniversary and we did it all in secret,” says the young girl with aplomb.

According to Bruno, the most rewarding thing for the family about living abroad is witnessing their children develop values as a result of their contact with different societies. “I sense that Rita is particularly concerned with justice and equality, unlike most children her age,” he adds. Bruno is leading the organization of the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) project in Maputo, and expects to stay in that country for at least three more years.

Learning from cultural diversity For the family of Jesús Alvarado, the city of Tete, in central Mozambique, was their first experience of living abroad. Valentina Andrade went to business school and worked at a bank in Colombia, and left both to go there with her husband and their nine-year-old daughter, Leide. Adapting

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π Jesús, an Odebrecht member based in Tete: he and his family are taking on his first challenge outside Colombia

was hard at first. In addition to the heat – over 40°C – the number of shops and service establishments was limited in 2009. “There were three restaurants and a bakery,” jokes Valentina. Leide soon fit in, which eased her parents’ minds. “She adapted easily and when she came home from school she was happy because of the music and dancing there,” says Jesús.

They had to make a slight adjustment to their plans when Valentina found out she was pregnant again. They decided to move to Maputo so she could get better medical care. Esteban, who is now 4, enjoys the afternoons when he and his mother play in the city parks, and his sister teaches him the latest English word she has learned at school.

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Having the family close by and watching their children grow up are daily rewards for Jesús and Valentina. “Choosing to work in an African country requires certain sacrifices, but it has made us stronger as people. The cultural diversity we have found here has taught us something new every day,” adds Jesús, who is the warehouse supervisor for the Moatize Coal Project in Tete.

Building a new life story José Roberto Pereira joined the Group 25 years ago, and Mozambique is his first international proejct.

In 2010, he got an invitation to join the team building Nacala International Airport. He decided that the time was right to leave Brazil.

“I was highly motivated because I knew that it would be a fantastic life experience for me,” recalls the project’s Commercial Manager. He went there on his own. José Roberto is divorced, but his children – Rafael, then 6, and Roberta, 10 – joined him a few months later. During the first three months, they were the project’s mascots, but when the school year started, they moved to Maputo. José Roberto was able to spend a great deal of time with his kids until August 2013, when they returned to Rio de Janeiro. “It was a new era for us, and I matured a great deal,” he says.

In the course of his everyday work on the project, he met physician Solange Pires. Now they have a ten-month-old daughter, Tahis Sayra Yussuf Pires Pereira. Her surname reflects her parents’ nationalities – Brazilian and Mozambican – and the Islamic religion they have both embraced. “I converted because I was won over by the Muslims’ simplicity and charity,” says José Roberto. Solange was one of the first company members to work at the jobsite. She loves Occupational Medicine and divides her time between staying home with the baby and reading books in pursuit of more knowledge and expertise.

José Roberto and Solange recognize the hardships of living far from town, but they are proud of the opportunity to build a different life 2,200 km from the Mozambican capital. “We are grooming young people to take our places in an area that offers few alternatives. It is motivating and gratifying to witness this period, and all I can say is that it is all worth it,” observes José Roberto. ]

"I love living here" Jerry Khouly arrived in Mozambique on his own in 2011 to work on the Moatize Coal project in Tete province. Three years later, his family now includes Brazilians, Colombians, Portuguese, and Mozambicans. That is how he feels about his friends and co-workers and people from the local community: they are family. “It’s not just that I like it here.

I love living here,” says Jerry, stressing the verbs.

The change of scene was extreme. Born on the Caribbean island of Antigua, Jerry had lived in Miami since he was 17. He decided to leave the US to work in Mozambique, which is one of the countries with the worst Human Development Indexes (HDIs) in the world. The first three months were the hardest, but all he had to do to start making friends was improve his Portuguese.

Jerry lives in the project’s jobsite accommodations and says he is happy with the life he leads. Being single, he spends his weekends traveling all over the continent, having lunch in town with friends, taking part in an activity at the city’s orphanage or just watching TV. After one trip to Miami, he came back with suitcases full of clothes and toys to bring smiles to the faces of the children being cared for by nuns at the Tete orphanage.

The poverty and living conditions of Mozambican families have made their mark on the life of this civil engineer, who never regretted the decision he made in 2011.

“I’ve started understanding people better. I’ve learned to appreciate and give thanks for the small things in life,” says Jerry.

π Jerry: “I’ve started understanding people better”

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“EXPERIENCING DIFFERENT CULTURES MADE ME A BETTER HUMAN BEING” LUIZ BUENO, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ODEBRECHT INFRAESTRUTURA – BRAZIL Written by Emanuella Sombra | Photo by Paulo Fridman

Luiz Bueno started his career with the Group through the Basic Entrepreneur-Partner Development Program in 1993. Fresh out of engineering school, he was taking on his first job opportunity. “This was the first company I ever worked for, and I’ve never left,” he says.

More than two decades later, he is Odebrecht Infraestrutura - Brazil's Managing Director (DS) for the markets in São Paulo and the South. In this interview, he discusses his career decisions, among them, working outside Brazil, with the feeling that he would do it all over again.

“Experiencing different cultures has made me a much better human being,” he says.

Bueno has been a Project Manager in Angola and spent four years as Managing Director (DS) in Colombia. After a decade away from Brazil, in 2013 he returned to São Paulo, his hometown.

“The decision to go abroad was one of the best I’ve made in all my time with the Group.”

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π What are the main lessons you learned as an expat?

When I got the invitation to go to Angola in 2003, I hadn’t planned to leave Brazil. That African country was experiencing the post-war era, which means providing basic necessities – water, power, sewer systems – that many people didn’t have. I remember when we were working on the treated water production and distribution project in Benguela, a guy came to talk to me. He was 20-something, very happy, and wearing the Group’s uniform. He walked into my office, sat down and said, “Sir, I’ve come to thank you. Yesterday was the first time I took a shower in the bathroom of my house. I put a chair under the shower and let the water fall on my head.” I’ve never forgotten that. π How was your experience in Colombia?

Colombia’s economy is a little more developed. GDP growth is higher than the average for Latin America, and they do business in a different way from Angola. Meeting the Group’s expectations and the challenges presented by the Colombian market was a steep learning curve. Fortunately, we won two contracts in six months: widening and operating the Ruta del Sol, a roughly 500-km highway connecting Bogota to the Caribbean coast of the country; and the construction of the Tunjuelo-Canoas Tunnel in Bogota. I believe the ideal average timeframe for an expat executive is 10 years, and in 2012 I realized that it was time to return. I had the opportunity to work in two countries with very different circumstances, and it was a wonderful feeling to come home to São Paulo and take on growing professional challenges. π What are the main challenges of living outside your home country?

I think they are adaptation and distance. When you’re far from home, you drift apart from your family and friends.

You make new friends, but you move away from your core.

And that creates a gap that stays with you. There are some important events that you end up not attending. Birthday parties, weddings, births, and funerals. Life goes on, your parents get older, the kids grow up, and you see videos and pictures of events, and you’re not there. On the other hand, you make new friends and experience different cultures and realities. I think that in my case the outcome was positive on the whole. I’d do it all again. π Did your family go with you?

No. When I went to Angola, my ex-wife had a promising career in Brazil and we decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to go along. Besides, I had a very busy schedule, which meant that I had to travel outside of Luanda all the time. I never stopped. I was traveling all the time. Not taking the family along gave me more availability for work.

π How can the family’s attitude influence you professionally?

The decision to leave Brazil to work abroad must be shared and taken jointly. This balance is very important, because the difficulties of adapting to a new culture and long-distance relationships can be huge. π Transferring knowledge is one of the priorities for the Group’s expat members. What was your biggest challenge in this regard?

I believe one of the main challenges in Angola was delivering projects on time with the requisite quality. And to achieve that, the education and skills of the local workforce were key. I believe that a project can generate benefits that transcend the work itself, and the opportunity to contribute to increased sustainability in the rural areas of the country was very rewarding. To a great extent, that meant helping the community in each of the cities were we were present to grow in a more balanced way.

“THE ETHOS OF SERVICE IS PUT TO THE TEST MORE INTENSELY WHEN WORKING ABROAD”

π Was Colombia any different?

We found a more skilled workforce there, and our biggest challenge was introducing people to the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology [TEO]. Because we grew very fast in that country – within six months we went from 30 members to over 2,000 – the challenge was to ensure that people internalized our entrepreneurial culture. And assimilating our culture takes time, dedication, and hard work. π What characteristics do people need to work or want to work abroad for Odebrecht?

Firstly, they need to know and practice TEO. It is also important to be willing to adapt to new circumstances, be curious, learn the local people’s habits and customs, and have the ability to influence others and be influenced. And, of course, you need to be able to take risks, because the reality of the destination country is often quite different from our own. It is essential to become part of the local community. If I had to go back 10 years, I wouldn’t think twice. I would do it all again. ]

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π Biaggio and Thaís: father and daughter working abroad together

A TEAM THAT’S SEEN THE WORLD ITS MEMBERS’ INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IS ONE OF ODEBRECHT LATINVEST’S MAIN ASSETS

Written by João Marcondes | Photos by Gihan Tubbeh

One man, one family, several roads to travel. And a 1962 VW Beetle. For Biaggio Sérgio Carollo, 54, moving gives meaning to life. As a boy he dreamed of a world without borders, influenced by the stories told by his father, Mario, an Italian who fled famine and war, was rejected by France and ended up in Brazil, where he did well thanks to hard work and multiple skills: he was a blacksmith, carpenter, mechanic, and electrician.

Biaggio and one of his sisters were born in Cornélio Procópio, Paraná. They spent most of their

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time on the back seat of the Beetle as they drove around the state, going wherever his father was laying foundations and raising walls: Apucarana, Prudentópolis, Morretes, Bandeirantes, Guaraniaçu.

“For me, that nomadic life and the ability to adapt to any situation is in my genes,” says Odebrecht Latinvest’s Concession Manager for the IIRSA South Highway in the Peruvian Amazon. By “genes,” he means his father, Mario. But there is also Biaggio’s 26-year-old daughter, Thaís, who has a degree in

psychology. He encouraged her to leave Brazil, and now she is a Young Partner in Peru, working for Rutas de Lima.

After graduating in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Biaggio tried public service, working for the government of his home town, but it wasn’t a good fit. Then he tried industry, working at a ceramic tile factory. “I didn’t like the repetitiveness, that daily noise of the presses. I felt like I was in Modern Times [the classic Charlie Chaplin film],” he says with a good-humored smile. He wanted to see the world.

After traveling all over Brazil as an Odebrecht member, he went to Venezuela, where he had his first experience of working outside his home country. His first international project was the Caracas Metro. “I had a lot of trouble with the language. I couldn’t understand it.” He dealt with Venezuelan workers, and French, German and Irish technicians. “But I didn’t give up. The challenge was too big for that. Huge,” he says. “To learn Spanish, I would go home and watch long speeches by [the late] President Hugo Chávez.

He had perfect diction. I picked it up fast.”

Biaggio’s life was an inspiration for his daughter, Thaís, who is now experiencing an intense process of cultural exchange in Lima. “Peruvians go all out when they celebrate their wins. I learned that from them, as well as the fact that the formality of their people reflects respect and confidence,” she explains. Her father adds, “You have to change and see life from a different angle.”

“No, no, get your son!”

Mario Costa Morales, 41, is from Ecuador. Like Biaggio, his father was a builder, but unlike him, he spent most of his childhood in the same place. He was born and raised in the coastal city of Guyaquil.

Early on, his father – who was also called Mario – presented the 14-year-old boy with constant challenges. For example, young Mario had to pay the workers their weekly wages, dealing with very experienced men who were over 40. Some of them had already asked for advance pay, and did everything they could to get the boy to “give them a break.” But the lad found a way to handle that situation. “I didn’t deduct it all. I gave them part of their wages. Later on, I made sure they paid it back. We made agreements and stuck to them. Afterwards, when my father came around to pay them, they’d say, ‘No, no, get your son!’” he recalls with a smile.

About 25 years later, Mario Costa was in Libya, working on the Third Ring Road in Tripoli, where he learned to think on his feet. That resulted from his maturity as an entrepreneur and made a huge

difference. “The Libyans have a different way of negotiating, of dealing with time. At Odebrecht we are encouraged to share our clients’ biggest dreams. In Libya, we had to prioritize small goals, the incremental achievements made from day to day. That was the only way to reach our overarching goal.”

You should never close a deal too quickly with a Libyan, says Mario. A taste for negotiation, of drawing out the bargaining process, is essential for success in that North African country. “I learned a lot from them and have brought that experience back with me to Latin America,” observes Mario, who is now the Engineering and Sales Director at Latinvest, where the focus is on long-term concessions.

Marcos Pereira da Silva holds degrees in Law and Engineering. Born in the Brazilian city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, he didn’t have a builder father or a nomadic childhood. In fact, his father had what could be considered one of the steadiest jobs in the country: he was a civil servant who worked for a federal bank, Banco do Brasil. However, Marcos was never attached to material things, and that has

π Mario uses the lessons he learned in Libya

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π Marcos: taking part in the pioneering Charcani V project

helped him go far in life. All his belongings could always fit in one suitcase.

Marcos took part in Odebrecht’s first project outside Brazil – the Charcani V Dam in Peru, begun in 1979. “In those days, everything was different. We were setting out into the unknown,” he recalls, visibly moved. To this day, he supports the Melgar soccer team from Arequipa, Peru (he also supports the Tupi club from Juiz de Fora and Rio de Janeiro’s Botafogo).

He never looked back. Marcos has worked in the United States, Colombia, Panama, and Libya,

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and now he is back in Peru as the Market Manager for the Rutas de Lima concessionaire. “I was always sure of one thing when I moved all those times: the company would give me the best possible working conditions.” He believes that working in different countries and a varied range of cultures helps build a long-term outlook that is essential for the concessions business. He has learned several lessons, including one in particular: “You have to understand that nobody is irreplaceable. Because of that, it’s important to leave your legacy for someone else to carry on.” ]

Márcio Lima

TEO “A LIVING, VIBRANT COMMUNICATION SYSTEM CAN BECOME MORE EFFICIENT THROUGH TECHNOLOGY, BUT ITS EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE WHO USE IT.”

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EXPAT HONEYMOONS ALEX AND RENATA, JUNIOR AND PATRÍCIA: BEGINNING MARRIED LIFE IN A UNIQUE AND AMAZING WAY Written by Bárbara Rezendes | Photo by Edu Simões

“Change is in my blood. I left home at the age of 19 to build my career.” Determination is one of the feelings that guide the life of electronic engineer Alex Lage. A member of Mectron, an affiliate of Odebrecht Defesa e Tecnologia (ODT) that manufactures products for military and civilian use, he was born and raised in Araçatuba, São Paulo. He left that small rural town to go to college and soon acquired a taste for change, particularly the kind that contributes to his personal and professional growth.

Always on the lookout for new opportunities, he joined Mectron in 2008 while working towards his

Masters at the Aeronautics Technology Institute (ITA) in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, the city where the company is based.

During his first year at Mectron, he attended a presentation by a group that was returning from South Africa, where they had worked on the A-Darter missile project for the Brazilian Air Force (FAB). “When I saw the presentation, it wasn’t the product that caught my attention. I was delighted to learn that those people had been living in another country, experiencing very different customs.”

π Junior and Patrícia: challenges and learning experiences in South Africa

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Hearing about the expat lifestyle first-hand from people who had just experienced it sparked Alex’s desire to get a chance to experience it for himself.

Soon afterwards, he heard there was a job opening on that same project, and went after it. “I talked to my leader, persisted and created the opportunity.

I was one of two choices, but the other candidate eventually dropped out of the selection process.”

Alex would not be traveling alone. He was newly married and his bride, Renata, had just moved from Araçatuba to São José dos Campos. For them, it was exciting news. The main difficulty was telling their parents, who have strong traditional family values.

“We kept it a secret for seven months. We only told them we were going to South Africa two months before we left.”

The same story repeated itself about a year later, this time involving two Mectron engineers, Antonio de Oliveira Junior and Patrícia Pinheiro da Cruz.

Junior is company member number 97. He started working at Mectron as an office boy in the financial area when he was 14 years old. Before long, he had joined the administrative support team. He graduated in Control and Automation Engineering and started working in the mechatronics department. “In 2002, my leader asked me to take charge of a project. In the course of our conversation, we decided that we would need someone to help me.

So he searched the local schools for their ‘best student’ and introduced me to Pati,” says Junior. That is how he and his wife first met twelve years ago. “We dated for seven years, seven months and 17 days,” Patrícia observes.

In 2010, a year after they were engaged, Junior was invited to go to South Africa to work on the A-Darter project. The proposal came in July, days after they had started distributing wedding invitations. “It was a surprise, but I told him to go. He had to go. It would be an amazing experience to get good results and grow personally and professionally,” says Patrícia. That same week, she received the same invitation. They got married in September, and in November, the couple moved from São José dos Campos to Centurion, South Africa.

New setting, new phase of life Alex and Renata, Junior and Patrícia. Both couples started their married lives together in a unique way. Aside from the challenges common to newlyweds, they were each making the most of new personal and professional experiences. Upon arrival, the biggest challenges were getting over jet lag and adapting to the local routine. “The work schedule is

different. Usually, people arrive at 6 am and leave at 3 pm,” says Patrícia. It was unusual to see people in the office after hours. “We realized that this was cultural, not a lack of work ethic.” She also says that 10 am and 3 pm are tea time. “That is sacred for them.”

In the process of technology transfer from the South African company Denel Dynamics, each member had a mentor responsible for passing on information about the design of the A-Darter. At first, communication was not easy. Patrícia explains, “We went through a bureaucratic process that required authorized access to each piece of confidential information.” Because of that, gaining people’s trust through a participatory process of exchanging knowledge was key. “We needed to show our mentors that we could do our part,” says Junior.

Over time, they established a relationship of trust and the work began to go more smoothly.

They also found ways to overcome language barriers. “Although we spoke English fluently, in practice, highly technical terms were explained through mime,” Junior recalls, laughing.

Experiencing history Living in South Africa gave them a first-hand experience of a period that is now in the past but whose legacy is still keenly felt in the rural city where they lived: apartheid – the political regime of racial segregation. The vast majority of Centurion’s population is white, and for many years they enjoyed educational, professional, and political privileges. With the end of apartheid, that changed, and quotas for blacks were established.

This paradigm shift is clear in theory, reflected in everyday life, but difficult to put into practice.

“Where we lived, whites and blacks still did not mix,” Patrícia says. “When I showed people a photo of my parents – my brown father and my blonde, blue-eyed mother – they all were amazed, and couldn’t seem to understand how that was possible.”

According to Alex, things are different in larger cities like Cape Town and Pretoria. “They are still separate, but that’s due to their affinities, like the same taste for music or local cuisine. The hatred between them is gone.”

Alex’s account of nearly three years of personal growth for him and his wife, Renata, and the stronger sense of partnership between newlyweds Junior and Patrícia are just examples of how the experience was worthwhile. “It makes you happy in different ways: leaving, living all that and being able to return home,” says Junior. ]

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FROM NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL TO THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN AND FROM JAPAN TO BRAZIL! BRAZILIANS AND JAPANESE TAKE PART IN A TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AGREEMENT Written by Mateus Codes | Photos by Márcio Lima

π Welders Marcos Aurélio (left) and Heitor Borges with samurai swords from Japan

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π André, flanked by Japanese colleagues Ryusuke (left) and Takeo: learning different life and work styles

Learning yoshi. That was the biggest challenge for the 23 Brazilians who returned from Kurashiki, Japan, on April 20 after three months of training at the shipyard of Kawasaki, one of the shareholders of the Enseada Indústria Naval shipbuilding company. The trip was part of the technology transfer agreement between Enseada and its Japanese shareholder, which will ensure an exchange of knowledge and training for 100 professionals. For this group, more than transferring the technical expertise they have acquired, the most important thing will be conveying the working philosophy of the East to their Brazilian colleagues.

“Yoshi is the term they use to confirm an action.

For example, if a Japanese plans to cross a street, he first looks at the light, then over at the other side of the street, and then he checks his route.

Only then does he cross the street. After each action taken in the course of that plan, he says ‘yoshi’ as a positive sign,” explains Bahian welder Marcos Aurélio Nascimento.

He and three other members got together to tell the Odebrecht Informa team about the key lessons they learned during their stay in Japan. It was a convergence of different cultures that generated knowledge and friendship via Education through Work. “The most valuable lesson I learned was the importance of planning. They devote a great deal of

time to that stage of the work, and it reduces errors when performing the task,” says welder Heitor Ferreira.

Welding supervisor Samuel Souza was impressed by the humility of the Japanese people.

“Although they respect seniority, over there at the Sakaide Shipyard they all wear the same uniforms and work directly with the machines, whether they are bosses or lower-level operators.”

The behavior of the Japanese also impressed him. “One time, I was riding my bike and lost my wallet. I was horrified because I had a lot of money in it. I headed back the way I came, looking very worried. But a lady had found it, waited for me to return, and called me over to give it back to me,” says industrial plumber José Cristiano.

After working together for three months, the Brazilians became good friends with their co-workers. “The day we left, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. They didn’t want to let us get into the car.

And believe me, it’s hard to make a Japanese cry,” observes Marcos.

Investment in training Leaving the Recôncavo region, as the bay area of Bahia is called, and traveling to the other side of the world was not easy. The company members had to leave behind their wives and children to invest

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in their professional education. “When my supervisor mentioned the trip, my wife was pregnant.

He thought I wouldn’t want to go, because I might miss the birth of my daughter. I told him I wanted to go, because my daughter’s future depends on me.

I was lucky. By the time I left, she was six months old. When I got back, she already had four baby teeth!” says José Cristiano.

The technology transfer agreement also involves bringing Japanese colleagues to the company’s units in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Naval engineer Takeo Seto is one of the professionals who came to Brazil. After six months in Rio de Janeiro, Seto is now working at the Bahia unit. “For us Japanese, preparation is important. The Brazilians don't stress as much about the difficulties that arise. I think we can learn from each other and benefit from this experience.”

Engineer André Frias agrees. A native of Rio de Janeiro, he shares an office with Seto and another Japanese colleague, Ryusuke Tsujiuchi. “The hardest thing is communicating with my co-workers, but it is very rewarding to exchange experiences with them,” he says.

Ricardo Lyra, the officer Responsible for People and Organization at Enseada Indústria Naval, believes that the training acquired through technology transfer is strategic for the company. The idea is to make the exchange of knowledge with the Japanese boost productivity so that it is higher

than the national average in Brazil. “We are never satisfied with the levels of quality and productivity achieved. This partnership with the Japanese is a way to improve them, because the indices in Japan are higher than the Brazilian national average.

I believe that if we combine the Asians’ capacity for planning with the flexibility and quick decision making that is our hallmark, we will get excellent results,” argues Ricardo. Enseada also maintains a close relationship with partners in other countries besides Japan, including Romania, Norway, the United Kingdom, China, and the United States. ] Geraldo Pestalozzi

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Returning home Although he joined Odebrecht just two years ago, the Brazilian engineer Marcelo Sampaio grew up with the teachings of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO) in his home state of Bahia. The son of a Group member (Newton Príncipe, General Director of Biocom in Angola), he represents the third generation of a family of civil engineers. At Enseada Indústria Naval in Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo leads a complex area that combines the activities of the Purchasing and Supply program with Project Management.

The engineer’s expat experience began at age 25, when he left Salvador, Bahia, for the United States to get an MBA. After two months in Houston, Texas, he postponed his studies to accept an excellent job offer from a French multinational in the oil and gas sector.

After two years in Lafayette, Louisiana, and on oil rigs

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in the Gulf of Mexico, Marcelo managed to save up enough money to attend the Thunderbird School of Global Management full time in Arizona. His training and experience garnered him a job at a large American company that makes oil production equipment. That marked the beginning an international marathon that taught him important lessons. During his 22-year career, Marcelo has visited more than 25 countries. In the first 12 weeks of 2014, he spent nine of them away from home.

For that seasoned traveler, the lessons are firmly ingrained. “I’ve learned we have to do our work differently in each country. In India, the desire to serve is so strong that they never say no, even when they know they cannot perform a task. Every nation has its own culture. We have to adapt and learn.”

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“I’VE BUILT MY CAREER ON WHOLE-HEARTED COMMITMENT” SINCE SHE JOINED THE GROUP, MARCELA HAS DRAWN UP LONG-TERM PLANS. WHENEVER SHE CRAVED A NEW CHALLENGE, IT AROSE Written by Alice Galeffi | Photo by Ricardo Artner

M A R C E L A

Her mother is from the art world and her father, from the world of business. That is how Marcela Drehmer was raised – between ballet performances at the Castro Alves Theater and the manufacturing plants of the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex in Bahia, Brazil. Today, she is Vice President for Finance at Odebrecht S.A. “Those two polar opposites were key to my professional career,” says Marcela. Dance gave her the discipline and courage to face the public and taught her to dream. At the other end of the spectrum, she acquired a taste for construction and the business world. But the most important lesson she learned at the time was that she was free to choose the path that made her happy.

Long-term plans Marcela joined the Group in 1994 as a member of Poliolefinas, where she was the officer Responsible for Accounts Payable. She went on to work in the Treasury department and later, in Financial Engineering. She grew along with the company. “I’ve always been very committed. They asked and I delivered.” She had long-term plans for her career at Odebrecht. Whenever she craved a new

D R E H M E R

challenge to supplement and bolster her expertise, it arose. At Braskem, she was Structural Operations Manager, Finance and Treasury Director and, until July 2013, Vice President for Finance and Investor Relations. She took part in the Corporate Finance Program at Credit Suisse in New York in 2000, and since the second half of 2013, she has been a Vice President at the holding company, Odebrecht S.A. “I’ve built my career on whole-hearted commitment.”

Family and partnership For Marcela, her partnership with the Group goes far beyond work. When she was trying to get pregnant, she had a hard time.

She had to spend two months at home because of the treatment she was undergoing. During those two months, the folks at the office left her alone – and they were all rooting for her. “For me, having a child was a team effort. I literally felt supported,” she says with a smile. Motherhood is the most rewarding experience in her life, and her family always comes first. “There’s no point in achieving success if there is no one to share it with.” ]

Marcela Drehmer is the 13th interviewee in the audiovisual series “Savvy – Folks Who’ve Learned from Work and Life.”

To watch the full interview, visit www.odebrechtonline.com.br

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Ď€ Rodrigo, Anelisa, Kleverton and Lana bolstered their careers with international experience

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THEY HIT THE ROAD AND NOW THEY’RE BACK AFTER REWARDING EXPERIENCES ABROAD, FOUR REPAT MEMBERS HAVE A CHANCE TO APPLY THEIR KNOW-HOW ON A PROJECT IN THEIR NATIVE LAND

Written by Luiz Carlos Ramos | Photo by Kraw Penas

Rodrigo Passos, 35, worked in three countries – Mozambique, Guinea and Portugal – during his first four years with Odebrecht before going to work in Brazil. When he returned to his home country in early 2013, he went to the town of Capanema, in southwestern Paraná, 20 km from Argentina, where Odebrecht Infraestrutura – Brazil is building the Baixo Iguaçu Dam. “I was one of the first to arrive,” says Rodrigo, who is the Commercial and Contract Management Manager for the project. “This is my first dam, and I want to become a dam builder.” Two of the people on his current team had been his team members in Africa and Europe: Lana Lemos and Kleverton Armelin.

Another team member, Anelisa Cantieri, came from Peru to provide reinforcements.

Rodrigo, Lana, Kleverton, and Anelisa are sharing the same experience as 60 other Brazilians repats brought back to their home country by Odebrecht

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Infraestrutura. Projects end, others begin. What are their new challenges like? How do they stay friends with the people they met abroad? Odebrecht Informa looked for the answers to these questions on the banks of the Iguaçu River, whose waters form one of the chief natural wonders of Brazil 70 km downstream – Iguaçu Falls.

“I made friends” “It’s always good to come back to Brazil,” says Rodrigo Passos. Now he is closer to his eleven-year-old daughter, Lorenza, who lives in Florianópolis. “My experience in Africa was wonderful. I learned a lot, helped hone local talent, and made friends.”

Rodrigo joined Odebrecht in March 2010 and went straight to Mozambique to work on the Moatize coal mine project. A year later, he went to Guinea, on the other side of the African continent, to help build the infrastructure for the major iron ore deposit in Simandou. After six months, his team continued their work at an office in Oeiras, Portugal, where they produced a financial report on the operation in Guinea.

“We didn’t see much of Portugal in those 10 months, but the mediation process was successful and I went on to Brazil. I keep in touch with two Mozambicans who were on my team, Gabriel Nhanpossa and Ivo Josine. They took charge of the comptrollership and finance area after I left,” says Rodrigo, who also made friends in Guinea.

“Africa is still with me” Lana Lemos, 39, has a business degree and hails from Itabira, Minas Gerais. She joined Odebrecht four years ago and is now a Costs Technician for the Baixo Iguaçu project. “I went to Mozambique in 2010. It was my first trip outside Brazil! I found a different world, with friendly, hardworking people,” says Lana. Her second mission was in Guinea: “The language there is French, but I could communicate in English. I was worried about the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, but my friends were not affected.” In her house in Realeza, Paraná, she shows her visitors some wooden statues. “This one is a Thinker, inspired by Rodin. An artisan from Guinea carved it for me. Africa is still with me.”

That continent is also in the heart and mind of Kleverton Armelin, 29, from São Manuel, São Paulo, an Information Systems Technician. After joining Odebrecht eight years ago, he is now Responsible for Appropriations for the dam project. “I worked on the Yellow Line of the São Paulo Metro and went on

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to Libya in 2009, working on the Third Ring Road in Tripoli.” Then he worked on the mining project in Guinea. “I learned to be a nomad from my father, Norberto Armelin, who is also an Odebrecht member.

I’ve expanded my knowledge, shared tips, and made friends,” he recalls. “Libya and Guinea are very different, but one thing they have in common is an interest in Brazilian soccer,” he says. He shows his visitors his cell phone. “Thanks to this technology, I can keep in touch with friends who are far away. We talk about soccer and work.”

Friends from the Andes Anelisa Cantieri, 36, was born in Presidente Prudente, São Paulo. She has a degree in Production Engineering and joined Odebrecht 10 years ago. This is her sixth hydroelectric dam project. Anelisa is the officer Responsible for Environment for Baixo Iguaçu, after working on four hydroelectric plants in Brazil - Capim Branco I and II, in Minas Gerais, Santo Antônio, in Rondônia, and Teles Pires, in Mato Grosso – and the Chaglla Dam in Peru.

Her father, Orlando Cantieri, is also dam builder, and worked at Odebrecht for over 25 years.

She has photos of Peruvian colleagues with the Andes in the background on her computer and cell phone. While she was in Peru, she learned Spanish.

She loves the country’s cuisine and salsa dancing and is proud of being able to share her knowledge and experience with local professionals. “They identify with the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology [TEO], and today, in Peru, they follow the entrepreneurial concept of sustainability developed on other projects in Brazil,” says Anelisa. “I helped mentor seven Young Partners for the Environment program: Rodrigo Reategui, Daniel Jara, Gabriela Ponce, Juan Blas, David Durán, Patricia Robles and Haniel Torres. Two of them have visited Brazil.”

The Project Director for the Baixo Iguaçu Dam, Luis Fernando Rahuan, says two Brazilian general foremen with extensive experience of working in other parts of Latin America, Moaci Rodrigues and Raimundo Rodrigues, have also returned to work on the hydroelectric plant. Under construction for clients Neoenergia and Copel, it will be equipped with three Kaplan turbines that have a total generating capacity of 350 MW, and is scheduled for delivery by 2016. Rahuan underscores the role of the Brazilian repats, particularly in imparting knowledge to younger company members: “They add value because of their experience with working on other projects in different

NATIVE SPIRIT BORN ABROAD, THEY BRING THEIR EXPERIENCE OF LIFE AND WORK TO ODEBRECHT REALIZAÇÕES IMOBILIÁRIAS IN BRAZIL

Fred Chalub

Written by João Paulo Carvalho

π From right, Eleonore, Pedro, Patrícia and Julio: adaptability

Brazil is a country of continental proportions, formed by regions with many different cultures, accents, climates, and topographies. All that diversity makes this eclectic nation a unique place to live, and has attracted people from all corners of the globe. They are helping to further enrich the cultural diversity that is powerfully symbolic worldwide. It does not take much effort to find someone from far-off lands who came to Brazil. Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias (Real Estate Developments; OR) is one of the places where we can find “gringos” – as they are affectionately called in Brazil – who have made that country their new home.

This is the case with Esteban de la Cruz. Born in Majorca, Spain, the son of a British mother and Spanish father, he went to school in the Canaries and Balearics and studied Civil Engineering in Barcelona. After college, he worked briefly in his hometown until he received an invitation to take

part in the construction of hotel complexes in Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and went on to tackle new professional challenges in Varadero, Cuba. While there, he gained the experience he required to go even further. Back in Spain, Iberostar invited him to manage the construction of a real estate resort in Brazil, more specifically, Praia do Forte, Bahia. Some time later, he was invited to join OR and develop Destino Sauípe (Destination Sauípe), which is part of the Costa do Sauipe hotel complex. He has been working on that project since January 2013. “I didn’t have much trouble adapting to this culture, but the language was an obstacle at first,” says Cruz. “Especially because I had come to work at Odebrecht, a company that is a benchmark in everything it does, and because it has a solid philosophy in which differences are respected, I adapted very easily,” he says.

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Artur Ikishima

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π Esteban analyzes how much Odebrecht’s philosophy eased his adaptation

Patrícia Caba comes from Catalonia, in eastern Spain. Before attending La Salle University in Barcelona, where she majored in Building Engineering, she was an exchange student in the United States. After returning to Spain and graduating from college, she emigrated in 2004 to Shanghai, China, where she worked for a French company. That is where she met her husband, a Brazilian economist whom she married in Barcelona.

Brazil was definitely in her future. The French company for which she worked in China consulted for the arenas that Odebrecht Infraestrutura (Infrastructure) is building in Brazil. That was all it took for her to move from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic and join OR in 2010. Today, Patricia is working on the construction of the multipurpose Praça São Paulo venture, which is being built in São Paulo City.

“Because my professional experience prior to Brazil was in China, the difference between those two countries’ ways of working was a major culture shock. In China, all people think about is work, and they invest very little in leisure and personal relationships. Here in Brazil, it is completely different.

The people are more open, communicative and flexible. I think Brazilians are too self-critical. In fact, the Brazilians have many good points that are not extolled and should be valued more,” she argues.

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Making friends Two more OR members come from the Iberian Peninsula, specifically Portugal: Pedro Sanchez and Julio Casanova, coincidentally leader and team member on the construction of Parque da Cidade, another OR venture in São Paulo.

Pedro graduated in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon in 2010. Before he finished his degree, he worked in his native country developing projects that would be implemented in Angola. After visiting Brazil on vacation, he received a job offer and joined OR in July 2012.

“Here the work procedures are very different from Portugal, but I haven’t had any major difficulty adapting. The teams are bigger, people know how to work together, and most important, they know how to make friends,” he says. Julio, in turn, did not need to adapt at all. Although he was born in Porto (Oporto), a Portuguese city famous for its Port wine, he moved to Brazil when he was seven months old. “My father was opposed to the Salazar regime,” he explains. “We had the options of going to Canada or Venezuela, but we chose Brazil. This is where my father taught me my profession,” says Julio, who has been with OR since 2007 and has worked on projects like the Odebrecht Building São Paulo.

Eleonore and José Ignácio Suárez-Solís are close contenders for the most miles traveled around the world. Born in Valparaiso, a historic city on the Chilean coast, his parents are Cuban, he is married to a Brazilian, and his children were born in Mexico. Suárez-Solís came to live in Brazil when he was just two years old. At 18, he went to the United States, where he graduated in Architecture from the University of Oregon in 1993. He returned to South America in 1994 and divided his time between Chile and Argentina, where he lived until 1998. Then he moved to Rio de Janeiro to work on the remodeling of the Hotel Nacional and went on to Bahia, where he opened a restaurant in partnership with his siblings before leaving for Puerto Rico, where he helped build the Caribe Hilton.

His next stop was São Paulo, where he took part in the construction of the Hilton Morumbi. He lived in that city for two years, then spent a year in Helsinki, went on to Mexico and Venezuela, and returned to Brazil in 2010. Contact with a friend who worked at OR and his vast experience with hotel ventures led Suárez-Solís to help build the Sheraton Reserva do Paiva in Recife, Pernambuco.

Until his next challenge comes along. ] Lia Lubambo/Lusco

Adaptability Camilo Maldonado is from Venezuela, but he has never really felt like a foreigner in Brazil. He has lived there since he was a year old. He grew up in Brasilia and went to college in Tocantins.

After joining the Young Partner program in 2008, he went to Angola, where he participated in the construction of the Vias de Luanda (urban roadways) and Mansões do Vale (gated community) projects. Back in Brazil, after experiences outside the Group, he returned to work on the Reserva do Paiva venture in Recife, where he has been assigned since May 2012. He is currently completing work on the Terraço Laguna project.

Eleonore Vigier used to live on the FrancoSwiss border, more precisely Annecy, in the French Alps. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, she lived in Marseille, Lyon, Paris and Montpellier before she decided to go to Australia as an exchange student. That is where she met her Brazilian husband. “All my travels have given me the experience necessary to adapt to any culture. I was amazed at the size of São Paulo, which is bigger than any city where I’d lived before, but even that was not a problem,” she says with a smile.

π Camilo (left) and José Ignácio have adapted well to Pernambuco and Brazil

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π Mark, his wife, Jennifer, and children: a warm welcome at school eased his family’s adaptation in Germany

JUST THE RIGHT BOOST THE LIVES OF SOME LEADING PLAYERS IN BRASKEM’S INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION Written by Thereza Martins | Photos by Thomas Kienzle/AFP

Philadelphia, USA, 2011. In the middle of a normal workday, Mark Nikolich, is invited to lunch with Luiz de Mendonça, now the CEO of Odebrecht Agroindustrial, who was then Braskem’s Senior Officer responsible for the United States. Mark had been Braskem’s Officer Responsible for Sales for over a year. Over tomato soup, Mark received a life-changing invitation: taking the helm of Braskem’s European operations.

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“I accepted on the spot,” he recalls. “That night, I talked it over with my wife, Jennifer, and got her support.” A week later, Mark flew to Germany to visit the two industrial units Braskem had recently acquired in that country. A little over three months later, the Nikolich family was back together and living in Frankfurt.

Once they were settled in, the adaptation stage began. Mark had lived in Germany with

his parents for four years as a child, so he was familiar with the language and culture during his second European experience. The process was a bit slower for his wife and preteen children, Kamren and Brienna. “My wife is a nurse, so she had to leave behind the profession she loves to go with me,” says Mark. Not only that, because she speaks fluent Spanish, she would have preferred to live in a country with Latin roots if she had a choice. At first, their kids felt a bit daunted by the move, but they got a warm welcome at school that helped them fit right in.

Experiencing a different culture has been enriching for all of them.

Professionally speaking, Mark faced plenty of challenges. In 2011, Braskem had acquired Dow Chemical’s polypropylene assets, including two units in the US and two in Germany, but the European business only included the industrial assets. Everything else would have to be rebuilt, starting with hiring the management and support teams.

“What might have seemed like a difficulty was, in fact, a challenge that only brought us benefits,” says Mark. “In the first place, we strengthend the ties with the sales team at Braskem’s office in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. We also had the unique opportunity to select professionals who

identified with the principles of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology [TEO].”

As a former member of Sunoco, the first company Braskem acquired in the United States in 2010, Mark organized his teams in Germany with the outlook and sensitivity of someone who had already gone through a cultural transition. One of Mark’s responsibilities in Germany was disseminating TEO among recent hires and potential candidates, like Alexander van Veen.

Alexander was an executive at Dow Chemical in Germany. He had worked for that company for 20 years. He decided to join Braskem after attending lectures and taking part in conversations.

“The entrepreneurial culture and the opportunity to influence others and work in a business environment where we would have to build a new structure, in addition to processes and procedures, clinched my decision,” says Alexander.

As the Leader of the Sales, Service and Technical Development department at Braskem Europe, Alexander underscores the importance of unity with the company in Brazil, particularly because of its leadership in the global petrochemical industry and vision of the future: growth and international expansion.

Cultural diversity is a strong characteristic of Braskem’s units in Germany, which have just over

π Alexander: drawn by Odebrecht’s entrepreneurial culture

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160 members. “We come from 16 countries from nearly every continent,” says Mark, who was born in the Netherlands. “There are many languages spoken in Europe, and we try to communicate with our clients in their own tongue to reduce the language barriers in our relationship,” he observes.

Opportunities and lessons In a world far removed from Europe, the prospect of growing within a global company that is bolstering its process of international expansion encouraged Diego Ballesteros Marini to apply to become a Young Partner at Braskem Idesa.

A joint venture in which Braskem owns a 75% stake, it will build and operate the Coatzacoalcos Petrochemical Complex in the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Hired in January 2013, Diego is working as a civil engineer at the company’s Mexico City

headquarters. “I based my decision on the magnitude of Braskem Idesa and the investment in this project. I hope I’ll do a good job, learn more every day, and build a career in the company,” he says.

Learning every day is also a motivating factor for more experienced professionals like Roger Marchioni, the officer Responsible for Polyolefin Exports, who has managed the Polymer Business at the company’s sales office in Argentina.

“Brazilians and Argentineans share points in common and get along very well. In any international experience, respect for the local country’s culture is fundamental. As a manager, I noticed very positive characteristics among the Argentineans that made professional dialogue smoother,” he says.

Roger explains that the Argentine team values openness and transparency in relations between leaders and team members, particularly at

BRASKEM WORLDWIDE A map and some figures for the company’s international presence

OPERATIONAL UNITS Brazil United States Germany

6,742

Brazil

624 USA

524 Mexico TOTAL

8,096

168

Germany

MEMBERS (AT 12/31/2013)

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION Integrated petrochemical complex to produce ethylene and polyethylene (scheduled to go online by 2015)

Bruna Romaro

π Ligia and Yuri: strong and wide-ranging communication strategy

feedback sessions. “They are good listeners, know how to make their arguments, and never take criticism personally.” The Buenos Aires office is responsible for Braskem’s exports from Brazil to Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia, as well as to Argentina itself, which purchases approximately 40% of the company’s polyethylene and polypropylene exports.

The role of communication Braskem’s internationalization process is based on all of the company’s programs, including Communication, which creates the conditions for disseminating its culture and opens up channels that facilitate dialogue and team unity. In the United States, for example, Communication has played a decisive role in welcoming members who previously worked at Sunoco and Dow Chemical, which Braskem acquired in that country.

“Our message is clear: the internationalization strategy for Braskem’s operations is just getting started. The objective is to stay in the

country [where we are establishing a presence] and grow. Because of that, we relied on the experience of the people who were already there,” says Yuri Tomina Carvalho. A member of the Institutional Marketing team, he worked in the US for nearly three years to set up the Communication area. They created Braskem’s In-House Communication outlets and a local intranet, as well as other news outlets and media aimed specifically at boosting assimilation in the United States.

“To bolster our relations with the teams in Mexico, the US, and Germany and ensure consistency in our in-house communication, we maintain an alignment schedule in a disciplined fashion. It includes monthly video conferences, an annual face-to-face meeting, daily conversations about our campaigns, memos and corporate newsletters, and planning meetings to carry out major projects and general in-house surveys,” observes Ligia Vannucci, the officer Responsible for In-House Corporate Communication. ]

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F O L K S

Written by Eliana Simonetti

TRAVEL

Born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Vitor Santos has lived in three other Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro, Vila Velha and Belém, where he graduated in civil engineering. He joined Odebrecht 1996, and his first project was the expansion of Mami Airport in the USA. Afterwards, he went on to work in Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Mozambique and Guinea-Conakry, and worked on bids for tenders in Djibouti and Saudi Arabia. Now in Angola, he is the officer Responsible for Contract Management on the Sonangol Refinery construction project for the Angolan state-owned oil company. “The contrast between the desert and ultra-modern buildings of the UAE, the Roman ruins of Sabrath and Leptis Magna, in Libya, the Island of Roome in Guinea-Conakry, the town of Borema, in Tete, Mozambique, the beaches of Restinga de Lobito, Angola – all of that blew me away, and it still does,” says Vitor.

Personal Archives

Citizen of the world

π Vitor: passion for discovering enchanting spots

FAMILY Mônica Alcântara

Relative distances

π Augusta: communicating with her parents online

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Augusta Fernandes joined Odebrecht in 2003 to work on the Northern Portugal Highways Concession near Braga, her hometown. In 2006, she was transferred to Lisbon. Her parents had just returned from Germany after working in that country for 30 years, and she expected to be closer to her family. Since 2010, she has been the Coordinator of the Consolidated Quality, Enviornment and Safety Sytem on the Baixo Sabor Dam project. Single with no children, she uses the Internet to communicate with her parents and likes it that way. “When you take on the challenges and opportunity of working at a company the size of Odebrecht, and when you do what you love, distances become relative.”

Personal Archives

ARTS & CULTURE Personal Archives

SPORTS

π Carla: presence in the communities

Exciting discoveries

π Daniel: synergy between mind and body

Man of steel Daniel Oliveira joined the group eight years ago, and for the last five, he has been the Production Manager on the Historic Heritage Preservation Project in Panama City, where he lives with his wife, Tatiana. Sports have been an important part of his life since childhood, especially swimming.

Recently, however, he decided to take on a bigger challenge. He started training for the famous Ironman triathlon, which involves swimming for 1.9 km, cycling for 90 km, and running for 21 km. The training was extremely tough, and the diet he had to follow, overseen by Tatiana, a nutritionist, wasn’t easy. Competing against athletes from Panama and around the world, Daniel managed to finish the race, which was held in Panama City at the beginning of the year. “This is a competition that requires planning and control, and body and mind must work together synergistically,” he says.

A chemical engineer from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, Carla Pires has a special interest in discovering and understanding new cultures. After working at Companhia Petroquímica do Sul (Copesul) and Braskem for 24 years, she has spent the last four years as the officer Responsible for Sustainability at Odebrecht Agroindustrial. Her daily routine involves visiting the company’s nine units and visiting the small towns in the vicinity. She tells the story of Perolândia, Goiás, which has a population of 2,900. Through Odebrecht’s Social Energy Program, she lent her support to local women who wanted to set up a garment-making and handicrafts cooperative. After taking a course at the SENAI vocational education institute and setting up a business plan with the help of SEBRAE, the agency for small businesses, they received a facility from the town government and Odebrecht refurbished it and equipped it with industrial machienry. It officially opened in February. The 70 cooperative members are already supplying local businesses and are getting ready to make uniforms for Odebrecht. But don’t expect to find anyone there at siesta time. Perolândia closes its doors after lunch, and the cooperative respects that local tradition.

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CONSOLIDATING A MAJOR LEARNING EXPERIENCE ODEBRECHT’S GROWTH LEADS TO AN UPDATED COMMUNICATION POLICY Written by José Enrique Barreiro

The Odebrecht Group has a new Communication Policy. Introduced on November 27, 2013, and signed by Marcelo Odebrecht, President and CEO of Odebrecht S.A., the new Policy replaces the previous one issued in 2003, and updates the directives and guidelines on the subject for the entire organization.

The need to update this Policy resulted from several factors, including the increased diversity, size, and impact of the Group’s business; technological developments that allow data to travel in real time on a global scale; increasing interaction with thousands of individual clients and millions of User-Clients of public service concessions; the aspiration set forth in our Vision for 2020 of including Odebrecht among the 50 most admired brands in the world; and the constant quest for conceptual unity and uniformity of practice throughout the organization, seeking consistency and synergy in all initiatives and areas.

The 36-page document sets forth specific responsibilities within the sphere of each Small Firm and Large Firm, and the holding company, Odebrecht S.A. It also creates the Communication and Image Committee, deals with Odebrecht’s Brand Strategy and Brand Architecture, provides guidelines on social investment, and gives the specifics on media and communication programs. It includes five annexes: Rules of Conduct in Social Media, Recommendations for the Entrepreneurial Leader (CEO) Responsible for Managing an Image Crisis, a Profile of the Odebrecht Foundation, a Glossary, and Online Interaction Guide on the Integra Network.

“Everything Odebrecht has learned about Communication and Image over the course of 70 years is included in this Policy,” says Márcio Polidoro, one of its formulators and leader of the Group’s Communication and Image Committee.

In addition to Márcio, three other members of the Committee spoke to Odebrecht Informa about the

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new Policy. Each of them underscored different aspects, but all pointed out the core principle of these guidelines: responsibility for Odebrecht’s image is the result of the actions of each member when handling the everyday challenges of serving clients and contributing to the communities where they are present.

MÁRCIO POLIDORO Responsible for Communication at Odebrecht Infraestrutura - Latin America π You spent over 20 years at the holding company and were one of the main formulators of this new Policy and its predecessors. How is this Policy different from the previous ones?

This is Odebrecht’s fourth Communication Policy.

The first was drafted in the late 1980s, during the transition from military rule to democracy – in other words, from a restricted environment to one with freedom of the press, advances in social organization and new requirements and expectations. This first Policy was still somewhat influenced by the previous period. For example, it did not cover relations with the foreign media, and only focused on providing support for the organization’s businesses.

The second Policy, published in 1994, was much more consistent with the new times, with democracy, the need for corporate transparency and social and environmental responsibility. Odebrecht also realized the importance of the media, which is the main channel through which society expresses itself.

That second Policy thoroughly overhauled this subject and advised of the need to learn to relate to the mainstream media. Until then our communication was only done through our own outlets.

The third Policy, produced in 2003, was a significant step forward, resulting from the lessons learned in the fields of Communication and Entrepreneurship. Odebrecht had expanded around the globe, it was the leading player in the indus-

π Braskem Members at one of the company’s industrial units: the pursuit of consistent practices throughout the Group was one of the factors that led to the updating of the Communication Policy

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trial sector, and had started operating in new and complex business environments. Image came to be a key factor. The aim was to support the development of healthy and productive relationships with a solid image, built on the public’s trust.

The current Policy introduces a new dimension.

Relationships are still crucial to building image, focused on four main groups: Group members, clients (including User-Clients), impacted Communities and opinion formers (the mass media, NGOs and others). The difference is that now we are promoting two-way dialogue based on our obligatory interdependence with several social groups. The current Policy clearly expresses the lessons learned over the course of the Group’s 70 years of existence. Everything we have learned about communication and image is in this Policy.

“THE NEW COMMUNICATION POLICY PROMOTES TWO-WAY DIALOGUE BASED ON OUR OBLIGATORY INTERDEPENDENCE WITH VARIOUS SOCIAL GROUPS.”

π What points would you underscore?

I’d highlight two. First, this Policy reaffirms the important role of Group Members in forming the organization’s image, because the brand is not just a symbolic expression. It results from putting our Philosophical Concepts into practice and is built up day by day. That is reflected in the media and all opinion formers. Therefore, the Policy reaffirms the decisive role of our members. We’re talking about each of our 180,000 co-workers, and not just leaders and PR professionals.

I’d also emphasize the fact that, for the first time, we have a brand strategy and architecture for the entire Group. Today, we have a collective vision that is combined with our Vision for 2020. To become one of the 50 most admired organizations in the world, as we intend, we have to be recognized as a single brand. π Within the sphere of your business, has the Policy been adapted in any way to be deployed in Latin America?

The Policy is broad, with interconnected concepts and guidelines, taking into consideration its application in diverse and culturally different environments.

It is the outcome of a long learning process within the organization. It can by applied anywhere. For

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people like me, who are active in the international arena in 10 countries and seeking a unified identity, the Policy’s concepts and guidelines point to all paths. So the challenge is to build a solid identity in Latin America, bolster the Odebrecht brand as a global company, and help position the Group among the most admired organizations in the world.

ALEXANDRE ASSAF Responsible for People & Organization and Communication at Odebrecht Infraestrutura Africa, United Arab Emirates and Portugal π How does the Communication Policy support your company’s operations in the different environments in which it operates?

Our market is Africa, the UAE and Portugal, environments with European, African and Arab cultures.

Our performance in these markets is at very different stages, so the challenge we face is finding the best communication strategies to achieve the public image we desire. We have consolidated our operations in Portugal and Angola, where we have been present for 25 and 30 years, respectively (in Angola, along with the presence of other Group companies, as well as the investments of the Odebrecht Africa Fund), and have achieved public recognition for our ability to perform and contribute to these countries’ development agendas and invest in grooming local teams. In the UAE, we are carrying out a highly complex project while learning to work with that country’s culture. In Mozambique, we are playing an important role and are in the consolidation phase.

And in Ghana, we established a Managing Director for that country last year because we believe in its potential. So you can see that our overall situation varies. In this sense, the Policy is a great help to us when taking on the challenge of implementing consistent communication programs in different businesses, cultures and countries.

“THE POLICY CLEARLY SPECIFIES EACH INDIVIDUAL’S ROLE AND STRESSES THAT BRAND BUILDING STARTS IN THE SMALL FIRMS, IN THE RESULTS CENTERS.”

π How does it help, in concrete terms?

With the recent major expansion of the Group, we have hired mature people who are assimilating our culture, and they may have the mistaken impression

π Odebrecht Members in Angola: public recognition for its capacity to contribute to the country’s development

that the Brand is just the communication teams’ business. It is not. The Policy specifies each individual’s role and stresses that brand building starts in the small firms, in the results centers. And it also clearly specifies the roles of the large firm, leaders and communication teams. The members of the small firms can’t expect the communication people to distribute a “magic formula for image formation.”

The Policy draws attention to the fact that decisions taken here or there can impact the whole. Previously, we were just an Engineering & Construction company, but today we are an organization with a wide range of businesses. In Angola, decisions made in one business can affect the others. In NossoSuper, for example, a supermarket chain that we manage in that country, we have 10 million clients per year.

When it comes to communication, it is important to work with opinion formers in a unified way that is on the same page with Engineering & Construction. So we need to be careful not to let a lack of communication and synergy have any reflection on our Image. We cannot think in isolation. Delegation is a clear concept of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology, but people are not delegated the power to make decisions that could affect the brand. π In what ways do you think this Policy is a step forward compared to the previous one?

There are many. I’ll name a few. Press relations, for example. Sometimes we’ve noticed that people are a bit wary about dealing with that issue.

The new Policy clearly states the importance of establishing long-term relationships of trust with members of the press. Therefore – and also in general – the Policy offers us a way forward in regard to the various topics covered, giving direct and practical support for the entrepreneurship of Image-related issues. I’d also emphasize this Policy’s proactive message. We are going to build relationships with people, not just during an Image crisis, but in a foresightful and planned manner.

We will introduce our organization to them.

Brand strategy, which guides a unified institutional narrative, is another major step forward.

We are urging our Managing Directors to move in that direction, adapting the Policy’s guidelines to their communication needs in each country where we are active. In Angola, for example, we must not fail to highlight the important role we play as investors, and the fact that we are the largest private-sector employer in the country.

Within the sphere of the Entrepreneurial Leaders (CEOs) and the countries where we operate, we work on the basis of the holding company’s guidelines to develop a position focused on achieving our Desired Image.

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MARCELO PONTES Responsible for Communication at Odebrecht TransPort π What is the main message of the Communication Policy for you?

The Policy has many strong points. The main one is bringing the subject up to date in relation to what is happening in the world. The world is connected.

Information flows in real time and affects everyone’s life. Every citizen is part of the media, an outlet for information. With cell phone in hand, they report events and opinions to the social and conventional media (press, radio and TV). It all happens so fast that it takes us by surprise. In [Odebrecht] TransPort’s operations, it sometimes surprises a concessionaire’s Operational Control Center, for example, because the citizen is on site, cell phone in hand, and immediately posts it on the Internet. Therefore, our social media teams work in exactly the same environment as the operational control centers. That way, both have immediate access to information on the operation and can send significant reports from our User-Clients to the Control Center.

“WE ARE PART OF THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. ONE OF THE POLICY’S STRONG POINTS IS RECOGNIZING THE MASSIVE NUMBER OF ODEBRECHT USER-CLIENTS, WHICH IS SOMETHING NEW.” π How does this update contribute to image formation?

Odebrecht has become more diversified, and today it provides direct public services to citizens, who evaluate us all the time. We need to interact with them. We have our Vision for 2020 – being one of the fifty most admired organizations in the world – and therefore we need unified concepts and consistent actions. To achieve this, the most important thing is giving good service. That’s where we start consolidating that image. But aside from providing good service, we have to be open and transparent with the User-Clients. This goes for Odebrecht TransPort and certainly for the Group’s other public service concessions. We have to be open to listening to what each member of the public brings us, whether it is information, an opinion or a complaint, and provide fast, accurate responses. π How does the Policy help in this effort to achieve unity and consistency?

In 2013, taking into account all the media together, 17,000 news reports on Odebrecht were

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generated. That’s nearly 50 news reports per day.

This high exposure demonstrates the significance of Odebrecht’s operations. Therefore, the Policy helps make our communication uniform and consistent. The Policy is the compass that guides our concepts, gives direction and helps build the desired image of the Group.

One of the Policy’s strong points is recognizing the massive number of Odebrecht User-Clients, which is something new. We are part of the lives of millions of people. In Odebrecht TransPort’s highway and urban mobility concessions, we serve about 10 million users. The 7,500 new bus shelters that one of our companies is deploying in São Paulo are for the use of 8 million passengers that ride city buses. In Rio and São Paulo, we transport nearly 1.5 million urban train and subway passengers per day. As of August this year, we will begin managing Galeão [Rio International] Airport, which handles 17 million passengers annually. It’s a massive number that we want to increase to 80 million by the end of the concession in 2049.

Moreover, we will have LRVs (Light Rail Vehicles) in Rio and Goiânia, each with capacity of 250,000 passengers per day. All those people judge us and evaluate us all the time. The Policy rightly advises us to listen to those User-Clients and give them convincing answers. That way we will enhance both our relationship with them and the quality of our services. Staying close to them is the best way to ensure what the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology establishes as the basis for the Odebrecht Group’s existence: satisfied Clients. .

SÉRGIO BOURROUL Responsible for Communication at Odebrecht S.A. π Which core aspect of the Communication Policy would you emphasize?

We are all responsible for the Group’s Image, and that is the central point we want to convey.

Odebrecht is a living social organism whose members interact with each other and the external environment; they influence the external environment and are influenced by it. The Odebrecht brand and Image are consolidated through the actions of all its members from day to day, whether in their relations with clients, the community and even their personal lives.

The Group’s image is associated with values like public, social and environmental responsibility,

π A SuperVia Member in Rio de Janeiro: direct service to the public

integrity, seriousness, transparency, confidence in people, and the practice of an entrepreneurial culture, the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology, which unites and identifies us. Each person’s individual actions should reflect this.

I would also emphasize the Policy’s guidelines with regard to our social media presence. The Group expects all of us to be aware that our personal behavior can impact our corporate image.

Therefore, we must think twice before we post.

“THE GROUP EXPECTS ALL OF US TO BE AWARE THAT OUR BEHAVIOR CAN IMPACT THE ORGANIZATION’S CORPORATE IMAGE.”

π Does the Communication Policy include mechanisms for ensuring alignment on all fronts, considering Odebrecht’s diversity and size?

Yes, that is what the Communication and Image Committee is for. Its role is administrative, deliberative and executive. The committee is made up of the officers Responsible for Communication at the holding company and the Businesses, who discuss all issues and communication programs that impact the Odebrecht brand, such as the prodution of annual reports

and corporate videos, websites, institutional ad campaigns, and publications for external distribution, among several others. π What is the role of the holding company, Odebrecht S.A., in this new Communication Policy?

Odebrecht S.A.’s Communication programs aim to preserve and enhance the Odebrecht brand, ensuring its unity and consistency with our principles and internal alignment in relation to this new Policy.

Therefore, we are helping the senior officers at the Businesses with the implementation of the Policy and contributing to their ongoing education while keeping them up to date. We also support the Businesses’ Crisis Management Committees and follow up on the implementation of the brand’s architecture throughout the Group.

It is important to emphasize that, for Odebrecht, communication is not an end but a means that allows us to build and cultivate relationships based on trust between our members and the people we consider strategic. Those people include our Clients, User-Clients, representatives of the communities with which we interact in our ventures, business leaders and opinion formers, like the media. We consolidate our Image, our skills and our values for society through Communication. ]

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SEVERAL ACCENTS, ONE IDENTITY AT ODEBRECHT AGROINDUSTRIAL, HARMONIZING CULTURAL AND GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IS ONE OF THE MAIN HALLMARKS Written by Guilherme Bourroul | Photos by Guilherme Afonso

π Desilien (left) and Kleber: mutual understanding that comes from respect

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Edu Simões

π Lídia: “Bit by bit, I had to face my fears”

The month of April was getting started, and with it, the 2014-2015 sugarcane harvest had begun. A time of reflection, faith, and hope. Following a decades-old tradition, the companies active in that sector usually hold an ecumenical service at that time to give thanks for another harvest season. At Odebrecht Agroindustrial’s Goiás hub, the event brought together three religious leaders – a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Spiritist. They all had one thing in common – the desire for a good year, surpassing past results, and especially ensuring the safety of everyone concerned. They include the people directly involved in the operation – from the cane fields to the factory – and the local community, which also feels the impact of a large influx of workers and heavy vehicles in their towns.

“We take great pleasure in holding an ecumenical service. We always thank God and ask Him to watch over our family and the Odebrecht family. The moment you become a family, all the agreed results will be achieved,” says Kleber Albuquerque, the Small Business Leader of the Goiás Hub, during the religious event, whose main hallmark is respect for diversity.

Adaptability Creating work and income opportunities for the communities in which it operates is one of Odebrecht

Agroindustrial’s main commitments. With seven of its nine units in the Brazilian Midwest, the company hires and grooms professionals from those areas.

To get an idea, company members from the three Midwestern states currently represent 42% of the company’s total workforce.

Although Odebrecht Agroindustrial invests BRL 5 million annually in the education and development of its members, harvesting and processing sugarcane requires technical expertise that often needs to be supplied by hiring specialists. The company has members from all Brazilian states. They don’t always find it easy to adapt to their new workplace, because the local customs are very different from theirs and the distances are vast. “Since most of our members are from somewhere else, we’ve created a group that helps each individual when they first arrive,” says Kleber. Born in the Northeastern state of Pernambuco, he is speaking from personal experience. Since he left his home state in 2006, he has lived in Alagoas, São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Goiás.

Diversity is in the company’s DNA, and it goes beyond geography and culture. People from different generations work side by side at Odebrecht Agroindustrial: young people who represent the new realities of work and life in the countryside, which include high-tech procedures and advanced training

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programs, and seasoned professionals who worked in the industry when its practices were more like the old plantation system. “The combination of people from these two backgrounds brings good results. It creates a more harmonious atmosphere,” says Kleber.

Another important feature is the massive presence of women: 17% of the total, far exceeding the industry average. Lídia Toledo joined Agroindustrial over five years ago. She has overcome numerous challenges in life. Although she was born in Cidrolândia, Mato Grosso do Sul, she was raised in Spanish-speaking Paraguay, where she lived until she was 15. When she returned to Brazil, she had to adapt to her home country. “It’s a very different culture. The food is different.

The atmosphere is different. When I came here I didn’t leave the house. I didn’t even say ‘hi’ to the neighbors because I was afraid they’d talk to me.” She recalls that not only was she shy but the other kids teased her because of her Paraguayan accent. “Bit by bit, I had to stop hiding and face my fears.”

According to Lídia, not speaking fluent Portuguese also made it hard to find a job. “I needed to work, but I didn’t have too many options because of my heavy Spanish accent,” she says. When she joined the company, she planted sugarcane, but just five years later, she is already a Work Front Leader. More than that, she was selected to provide support to the agricultural supervisor on three fronts with a total of nearly 90 members. “The respect I’ve earned from the team goes far beyond my voice and my accent,” she says. ]

REPRESENTING BRAZIL Odebrecht Industrial’s members come from every Brazilian state

A long journey In early 2012, Brazil and Haiti signed an agreement that granted 1,200 permanent visas to that Caribbean country, which was devasted by an earthquake two years earlier. As part of this relief effort, Odebrecht Agroindustrial offered 23 jobs to Haitians at the Goiás Hub. Desilien Ceus was one of them. He traveled a long way before arriving in Cachoeira Alta, Goiás, where he now lives. Ceus left Gonaives, a city 200 km from the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, and went to the Dominican Republic and Peru before he reached the Northern Brazilian state of Acre, where he stayed for a month.

“I got a warm welcome. Brazilians respect people and their differences. I feel right at home,” he says.

Despite the respect and tolerance, Ceus has made an effort to adapt to Brazil. He lives with two fellow countrymen. When they are together, they speak Creole, Haiti’s second language – the official language is French.

Nevertheless, his Portuguese is improving. Ceus has resumed his studies and is now enrolled in the 5th grade of elementary school. “The first Saturday I went to church, I found I had a family there. At work it is no different. Everyone respects people’s cultural differences.”

42% Midwest

28% Southeast

20% Northeast

8% South

1% North

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π Carlos, Maria Beatriz and Carlitos: “born” at Odebrecht

HARMONY STARTS AT HOME IN VENEZUELA, RELATIVES WORK TOGETHER AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNITY AND DIVERSITY ON THE JOBSITES Written by Patrick Cruz | Photos by Andrés Manner

Carlos Vergara is no shrinking violet. He does not hesitate to joke with co-workers about his “privileged contacts” in the administrative area of the Third Orinoco River Bridge project in Venezuela. “When I walk into a room, I tell everyone to behave or I’ll rat them out to the money-woman,” he says with a laugh. The officer Responsible for Operational Support and Asset Security on the project, which is located in Caicara del Orinoco in Bolivar State, 500

km from Caracas, Vergara is married to Maria Beatriz Figueras, who works in the project’s financial area. This Venezuelan couple is a good example of how husbands and wives working together in the same place can be very healthy – for the spouses and the company.

Maria Beatriz joined Odebrecht in 2001 to work in the Finance program for the Second Orinoco River Bridge, which has since been completed. Once, at her leader’s request,

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π Jose Luis and Tania: an example of unity at home and work

Maria Beatriz suggested five candidates to take charge of Operational Support for the project – they did not include her husband, although he was perfectly qualified for the position. “We never thought we could work together on the same project. Most companies discourage it,” she says. Because none of the candidates Maria Beatriz suggested was right for the job, she mentioned that her husband had the necessary qualifications, and the doors opened. Vergara joined Odebrecht that same year.

Between 2006 and 2008, before going to work on the Third Bridge project, the couple was assigned to the Tocoma Hydroelectric project on the Caroni River, also in Bolivar State. They did not start working on the Tocoma and Third Bridge projects at the same time, but their leaders have always tried to

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ensure that they are both assigned to the same project as soon as possible.

“The company’s philosophy is confidence in people,” says Maria Beatriz. “And responsibility is non-transferable: either you’re responsible or you’re not.” United at home and at work, Carlos and Maria Beatriz now have a son, Carlitos, to keep them company. He is fan of soccer and Argentine superstar Messi.

“Carlitos was born at Odebrecht,” says his father.

Intrigued by girlfriend’s dedication Jose Luis Paz Lopez and Tania Carolina Finol Boscan are also examples of unity at home and work. Tania joined Odebrecht in 2004 as a trainee, on the Maracaibo agricultural project.

She and Jose Luis started dating in 1999, when

they were both in college. He admits that he had never heard of the company before they met.

But he was intrigued by his girlfriend’s dedication to her job, and saw that the more she worked, the more fulfilled she seemed professionally. “Because she never complained, even when she had a heavy workload, I thought, I want to work for that company to find out why Tania likes it so much,” he says. Today, he is the officer Responsible for Production on Gran Caracas Housing Projects in Chorritos (in Los Teques, Greater Caracas), a low-income housing

development deployed by the Venezuelan government. Tania is responsible for Research and Quality Control at the jobsite for Gran Caracas Housing Projects in Santa Cruz (in Guarenas, also in Greater Caracas).

“When we’re together, we worry less about the children and our daily lives. And happy people are more productive at work,” says Tania. They now have two children, Amanda and Matías, born in 2010 and 2012, respectively – the fruit of a partnership that remains strong on and off the job. ]

A nomadic way of being At age 49, Mariano Domingues, Director of Business Development at Odebrecht Infraestrutura – Latin America, has spent more than half his life working in the organization. He joined the Group as a trainee 28 years ago, and has traveled the world to work on different projects. “For us, the company is part of the family,” he says.

A civil engineer, Mariano joined Odebrecht in his hometown, the Brazilian city of Recife, Pernambuco. His career has included projects in Ecuador, South Africa, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Guinea, Ghana, and now Venezuela. “The interesting thing is that being with the same company all that time does not mean you’re complacent,” he says. “Just the opposite.

Because each project and each country is a new beginning, you always feel that it’s a fresh learning experience, a fresh challenge.”

Domingues has spent 20 of his 28 years with Odebrecht as an expat, accompanied from the outset by his wife, Ana Claudia.

They have two children, Mariana, 19, and André, 18, both born while the couple was living abroad. “Some people think that spending so much time outside Brazil makes you lose touch with your roots. In fact, it strengthened our identity even more, and the family is even more united,” he says.

José Carlos Camargo is also on the verge of marking three decades at Odebrecht: he joined the Group 27 years ago. After working on projects in several Brazilian states, including Goiás, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará and Minas Gerais – with a year off to take an MBA in the UK – Camargo went work to Angola in 2005. Then, in early 2010, he and his family moved to Venezuela, where he is now the Project Director for the Tocoma Dam. “Our ‘nomadic’ side takes us away from our parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, but brings us closer to our wives and children,” he says. “And we end up getting another family at the company.”

π Mariano: the company as part of the family

π José Carlos: stronger ties with the wife and kids

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W O R D

WHEN THE PORT IS ALSO HOME EUSTÁQUIO SOUTO, PRODUCTION MANAGER FOR THE SONAREF PROJECT’S MARITIME TERMINAL Electrical engineer Eustáquio Antônio Ferreira Souto left the Brazilian town of Resplendor, Minas Gerais, to see the world.

Now the Maritime Terminal Production Manager for the SONAREF Project in Lobito, Angola, he has worked in several parts of Brazil – Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, and Maranhão – as well as Djibouti, Peru, and Argentina. A veritable globetrotter, he has made the most of every opportunity to get to know different cultures and lifestyles.

Written by Eduardo Souza Lima / Photo by Kamene Traça

π How would you sum up your globetrotting experience?

My family moved to Vitória, Espírito Santo, when I was 15. I joined Odebrecht in Bahia in 1983, starting out in the Equipment area.

Then in 1991, I transferred to the Production program. I took part in resettlement and irrigation projects in Pernambuco, where I also had the opportunity to work on a port project in Suape. Then I went to work on the Pier III project in São Luís, Maranhão. That was my first major challenge in the area of port construction. In 2004, I went to Djibouti, in the far east of Africa, where I stayed for a year and six months. Then I returned to Maranhão for the expansion of Pier III. I spent four years in Peru, went back to Maranhão again, this time to work on Pier IV, and worked two years in Argentina. I arrived in Angola six months ago.

Naturally, I did all that with the steadfast support of my wife and daughters.

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π You helped Odebrecht establish a presence in Djibouti. Could you describe that experience?

I went to Djibouti after the company had won its first contract in that country. According to the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology, we have to adapt to the country and not the other way around. Each nation has its own unique characteristics. In Djibouti, people spoke 15 languages and dialects at our jobsite, and we had company members from 25 countries. Because many of them were Muslims, we respected their prayer times, especially during Ramadan. Angolan cuisine is similar to Brazil’s, but we had to take beans to Djibouti. π What is it like to work in Lobito?

It’s a different kind of port. Previously, we had only built ports with piles that were driven or excavated in the ground. This technology involves using concrete blocks.

China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC) built an iden-

tical project in the city of Lobito, and Odebrecht has sub-contracted them. π How are your work relations with the Chinese?

They’re excellent. We respect their customs and learn from them. They start work at 6 am and stop for lunch at 11:30. Then they take a nap until 2:00 pm. That’s how they do things, and they are more productive that way. They left their country to work hard and they take that very seriously. To bolster our relations with them, we have worked together to set up training programs based on our Workplace Safety, Environment and Quality policies. We have also focused on the social side: we organize dinners, and they take part in our get-togethers and sports activities. ]

Diferentes, pero iguales The Odebrecht Group is made up of:

Businesses Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial Odebrecht Infraestrutura – Brazil Odebrecht Infraestrutura – Latin America Odebrecht Infraestrutura – Africa, UAE and Portugal Odebrecht United States Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias Odebrecht Ambiental Odebrecht Latinvest Odebrecht Properties Odebrecht TransPort Braskem Enseada Indústria Naval Odebrecht Agroindustrial Odebrecht Defesa e Tecnologia

Nuestros equipos están formados por personas de 77 nacionalidades.

Investments Trabajamos en las arenas calientes deOdebrecht los Emiratos Energias Brasil Árabes Unidos, Odebrecht Africa Fund en las altitudes de los Andes peruanos, en el interior de Angola y de Portugal, Odebrecht Latin Fund en el centro de Miami y de São Paulo o donde sea que haya un desafío Companies para vencer en los 23 países en queSupport operamos.

Odebrecht Comercializadora de Energia Odebrecht Corretora de Seguros Odebrecht Previdência Odebrecht Engenharia de Projetos Odebrecht Serviços de Exportação

La Tecnología Empresarial Odebrecht nos ofrece la referencia fundamental para actuar en un ámbito global. Para nosotros, el ser humano, Social Program cualquiera sea su ambiente y su cultura, debe ser, siempre, el principio, Odebrecht Foundation el medio y el fin de todas las acciones que realizamos.

RESPONSIBLE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AT ODEBRECHT S.A. Sérgio Bourroul RESPONSIBLE FOR BRAND CONTENT AND MANAGEMENT AT ODEBRECHT S.A. Karolina Gutiez EDITORIAL COORDINATION Versal Editores Editor-in-Chief José Enrique Barreiro Executive Editor Cláudio Lovato Filho English Translation H. Sabrina Gledhill Photo Editor Holanda Cavalcanti Art/Graphic Production Rogério Nunes Electronic Publishing and English Edition Coordinators Maria Célia Olivieri (in memoriam) and Juliana Olivieri Printing 438 copies Pre-Press and Printing Ipsis Editorial offices: Rio de Janeiro +55 21 2239-4023 São Paulo +55 11 3641-4743 e-mail: versal@versal.com.br You can also read Odebrecht Informa magazine: * on the Internet, at www.odebrechtinforma.com.br, where you can access videos and other reports; * on your iPad, by downloading the Revista Odebrecht App free of charge from the App Store.

contribution

Quito, Maputo and Abu Dhabi. Three cities where Odebrecht members are present with their expertise and ethos of service. Three settings where they play a leading role in complex and inspiring experiences that unify people from different cultures. Around the world, Odebrecht’s operations also provide this: a clear demonstration that people want to be closer to their fellows (no matter how different their habits, traditions and convictions may be), get to know them, and share their dreams and achievements.