António de Sommer Champalimaud was born on March 19, 1918. He was the first of four sons of Carlos Montez Champalimaud and Anna de Araújo de Sommer. From early on, his enterprising spirit, firm convictions and strong personality helped him take on the family business and build solid assets.

The death of his father when he was only 19 years of age was the turning point in the life of young António, precipitating a sequence of events that made their mark on his meteoric rise. Without any knowledge or participation, until then, in his father’s affairs, he abandoned the study of Physical-Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and, against everything and everyone, revitalised the bankrupted Companhia Geral de Construções (General Company of Constructions). After the death of his uncle Henrique Sommer, founder of the cement industry in Portugal, António Champalimaud succeeded him as president of Empresa de Cimentos de Leiria and from there, until the April 1974 revolution, he created a powerful industrial and financial group, in Portugal and beyond borders, in the cement, steel, iron, paper, banking and insurance sectors, becoming one of the greatest Portuguese entrepreneurs of all time.

However, he suffered an enormous setback when his assets were nationalised following the Portuguese revolution. In spite of huge financial losses, António Champalimaud moved to Brazil, where with characteristic tenacity he rebuilt his empire, first through the industrial activities he knew well, such as the production of cement, and later through the diversification of his business into the agricultural and livestock sectors.

He returned to Portugal in the 90’s, at which time he started to resolve his dispute with the Portuguese state and strongly invested in the national banking system. From then on, he divided his life between Portugal and Brazil. He became the owner of one of the major Portuguese financial groups, which he would sell years later.

António de Sommer Champalimaud died on May 8, 2004, leaving an unquestionable mark on the Portuguese industrial and financial landscape. His life was marked by constant challenges, some failures and many victories, but always driven by a high sense of liberty, ambition, independence, determination, initiative, vision and creativity. These traits, rather than the definition of what he was, are at the basis of the legacy that will perpetuate the António de Sommer Champalimaud name and forever associate it with great conquests.