Joseph Safra is the richest banker in the world, according to Forbes.
Background
Ethnicity:
Joseph Safra was born to a well-off Jewish-Lebanese family with origins in Syria.
He was born in Syria and brought up in Lebanon, but is the chairman of the Safra Group, which is the company that he founded and runs in Brazil. His family moved to Brazil in 1952, where Joseph's father, Jacob, and his brother, the late Edmond Safra, started working in the financial industry in Sao Paolo. Joseph eventually got in the business himself, founding Banco Safra, the 9th largest bank in Brazil, in the 1960s.
Personality
Joseph is a good negotiator and he speaks english, french, spanish, italian, arab and hebrew. He likes to lead a simple life with his wife Vicky and their four children – and that he has other passions, besides taking care of his bank. One of them is a love for old and rare books, which makes him one of the greatest collectors of such works in the country. Cheering for the Corinthians soccer team is another passion, that leads him to stadiums with his children and an army of bodyguards, of course.
Interests
Joseph Safra is also a philanthropist who has donated vast amounts of money through his foundation, the Edmond. J. Safra Foundation. The foundation still donates large amounts of money to charities all over the world.
Safra is a man who is self-made and despite being the richest banker in the world right now, he continues to stick to his roots. He has made massive donations to war victims and the poor and has always thought about the welfare of his community. He is very famous in Brazil for his philanthropic efforts and continues to be one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs to have ever lived.
Connections
He is married and has four children.
Father:
Jacob Safra
Mother:
Esther
Brother:
Edmond
Edmond, the oldest, worked at his father's bank since he was 16 and sold his share to his brothers in order to open other banks on his own. He accumulated a fortune of billions until he suffered a tragic death in Monaco, where he lived with his wife Lily Safra (former owner of Ponto Frio). The banker was killed in a fire in his own home, in1999. The suspicion is that the tragedy was caused by robbers, but until this day it is not certain exactly what happened.
Brother:
Moise
Moise, who is four years older than Joseph, also appears on the Forbes list, but with a smaller fortune – 2.4 billion dollars.
