Jorge Paulo Lemann

Jorge Paulo Lemann
Image	; Jorge Paulo Lemann at a Fundação Estudar event
Born	26 August 1939 (Forbes) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian (Forbes); the Lemann Foundation describes him as Swiss-Brazilian
Residence	Near Zurich, Switzerland
Occupation	Investor
Known for	Co-founder of Banco Garantia and 3G Capital; controlling shareholder of AB InBev
Spouse(s)	Susanna Lemann
Children	5 (Forbes); 6 (Veja, 2013)
Education	Harvard University (BA, 1961)

Brazilian-Swiss investor; co-founder of Banco Garantia and 3G Capital and a controlling shareholder of AB InBev

Jorge Paulo Lemann (born 26 August 1939) is a Brazilian investor who has lived in Switzerland since 1999.^[1]^[2] With his partners Marcel Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira he built the investment bank Banco Garantia, took control of Lojas Americanas and the brewer Brahma, and assembled the brewing group that became AB InBev; through 3G Capital they also invested in Burger King, Kraft Heinz, Hunter Douglas and Skechers.^[1]^[3]^[2] On 10 November 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Lemann and his family 128th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$20.7 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as beer.^[1]^[4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Lemann and his family 137th, at US$19.8 billion.^[5] In January 2023 Americanas, of which the three partners were the reference shareholders, disclosed accounting "inconsistencies" of about 20 billion reais and filed for court-supervised reorganisation; the three said they had not known of any accounting manipulation.^[3]^[6] He founded the Fundação Lemann, an education foundation, in 2002.^[7]

Early life and education

Lemann was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1939.^[7] The Guardian reported that his Swiss father had emigrated to Brazil in the early 1920s and sent him to Harvard; he played tennis seriously, reaching Wimbledon, before returning to finance.^[2] He graduated from Harvard in 1961.^[7] Forbes quotes him as saying: "I quit playing professional tennis when I realized it would be hard to be among the 10 best in the world."^[1]

Banco Garantia and early investments

According to BBC News Brasil, Lemann bought Garantia in 1971, when it was still a securities broker, at the age of 32; Telles and Sicupira joined over the next two years.^[3] The Guardian describes him as a co-founder of Garantia, which introduced new deal-financing techniques to Latin America.^[2] Garantia became a bank in 1976. Under the three partners it took control of Lojas Americanas in the early 1980s, and in 1993 they set up the private equity firm GP Investimentos.^[3] Garantia was sold to Credit Suisse First Boston in 1998; Forbes and The Guardian give the price as US$675 million.^[1]^[2]

Brewing: from Brahma to AB InBev

The partners entered brewing in 1989 with the purchase of Brazil's largest brewer, Cervejaria Brahma. Ten years later Brahma merged with Companhia Antarctica Paulista to form AmBev, and in 2004 AmBev combined with the Belgian brewer Interbrew to form InBev, with the Belgian families and the Brazilians controlling 64 per cent of the group through a shareholder agreement.^[2] In July 2008 The Guardian reported InBev's planned combination with Anheuser-Busch, whose leading shareholder was Berkshire Hathaway, and in 2016 AB InBev completed its acquisition of SABMiller for nearly US$100 billion.^[2]^[1] Forbes describes Lemann as a controlling shareholder of AB InBev, the world's largest brewer.^[1]

3G Capital

Forbes describes Lemann as a co-founder and partner of the private equity firm 3G Capital, whose other billionaire partners include Telles, Sicupira and Alex Behring.^[1] BBC News Brasil dates 3G's creation to 2004.^[3] In 2013 3G and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought H.J. Heinz, which later merged with Kraft; 3G sold its Kraft Heinz stake in 2024.^[1] The partners also hold stakes in Restaurant Brands International, owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons. In 2021 3G bought 75 per cent of the Dutch window-shade maker Hunter Douglas in a US$7 billion deal, and in 2025 it paid almost US$10 billion for the US footwear brand Skechers.^[1] In September 2021 the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Kraft Heinz with an expense-management scheme running from late 2015 to 2018, which led to a restatement correcting US$208 million in improperly recognised cost savings; the company agreed to pay US$62 million.^[8] BBC News Brasil described this settlement as one that closed an SEC investigation into accounting misconduct at Kraft Heinz.^[3]

Americanas accounting scandal

In January 2023 Americanas announced that it had found accounting "inconsistencies" of about 20 billion reais. Its shares lost almost 95 per cent of their value within days, and the company filed for court-supervised reorganisation with 43 billion reais of debts and 16,300 creditors.^[3]^[6] Lemann, Telles and Sicupira, its reference shareholders with just over 30 per cent, issued a joint statement saying: "We never had knowledge of, and would never have allowed, any accounting manoeuvres or concealment at the company." They pointed to the company's auditor, PwC, and its banks, which they said had never reported irregularities.^[6]^[3] BBC News Brasil reported that the three had lost about 3 billion reais on their shares, that the bank BTG Pactual had accused them in court of fraud, and that Brazil's securities regulator, the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), was investigating their conduct.^[3] A parliamentary inquiry (CPI) in the Chamber of Deputies ended on 26 September 2023 without naming anyone for indictment; its rapporteur said there was not enough evidence, and the report was approved by 18 votes to 8. One member, Fernanda Melchionna, said the outcome was an "attempt to shield" the large shareholders and banks.^[9]

Wealth

Forbes lists his source of wealth as beer and classes him as self-made.^[1]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 23 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2004. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[5]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2004	514	1.1
2005	228	2.6
2006	200	3.4
2007	165	4.9
2008	172	5.8
2009	92	5.3
2010	48	11.5
2011	55	13.3
2012	69	12.0
2013	33	17.8
2014	34	19.7
2015	26	25.0
2016	19	27.8
2017	22	29.2
2018	29	27.4
2019	35	22.8
2020	129	10.4
2021	114	16.9
2022	117	15.4
2023	108	15.8
2024	113	16.4
2025	119	17.0
2026	137	19.8

Personal life

On 9 March 1999 two armed men tried to kidnap Lemann's three youngest children as they were being driven to school in São Paulo; the family's armoured car and driver, who was wounded, prevented the abduction, and the family decided to leave the country.^[10] The Guardian reported in 2008 that he had been based in Switzerland since the attempt.^[2] Veja reported in 2013 that he lived with his wife Susanna in a house on Lake Zurich, and described him as a father of six; Forbes lists five children.^[11]^[1]

Philanthropy

Lemann founded the Fundação Lemann in 2002; it works on public education in Brazil and the development of leaders, and he chairs its board.^[7] In 2011 Stanford University's School of Education launched the Lemann Center for Educational Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Brazil as a ten-year partnership with the foundation.^[12] The foundation says it supports similar centres at Harvard, Oxford, Columbia and Illinois, and a Lemann Center for Leadership and Equity in Education in Sobral, Ceará.^[13]

Political activity

No donations to political parties or candidates were documented in the sources checked. The Lemann Foundation states that it supports "leaders committed to the social transformation of Brazil".^[7]

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."