Mr. José Paulo Ferraz do Amaral graduated in Business Administration from Mackenzie University and has a postgraduate degree from Getúlio Vargas Foundation, both located in São Paulo (Brazil). Mr. José Paulo worked in Mesbla S.A., from 1971 to 1985, starting his career as a trainee and rising up the corporate ladder up to Director of the Department Store division. He was the CEO of Lojas Americanas, from 1985 to 1996, actively engaged in the partnership between Lojas Americanas and Walmart with the purpose of setting up the Walmart Company operations in Brazil. Mr. José Paulo attended several courses focused on business management at institutions such as INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France, and Harvard Business School, in the USA. After leaving Lojas Americanas, he worked together with Banco Pactual in the successful turnaround of Mesbla S.A. More recently, since 1997, he runs an 11,400 hectare soybean and corn plantation in a large property, located in the city of Naviraí, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil.