Dibden Purlieu Saint Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 Send a letter to Charlene De Carvalho Brown Candover Alresford, Hampshire, UK Apparently Everton enquired a few years ago only to hear it was too far for them to contemplate. 3.2bn, de Carvalho is Britain’s second richest woman,The Mail on Sunday. And last week she became “the new queen of British brewing” when Heineken, in which she has a controlling stake, took over Britain’s biggest brewer, Scottish & Newcastle. De Carvalho, 52, has brewing in her blood. Her mother, Lucille, was the daughter of a Kentucky bourbon baron; her father, Freddie Heineken, the visionary Dutchman who clawed Heineken back from the brink of disaster after debt, divorce and bad management saw the family lose control of the firm his grandfather had founded in 1873. By secretly buying up shares, 30-year-old Freddie regained the firm in 1954 and went on to turn Heineken into the world’s second largest brewer by volume. “I wanted to prevent strangers from doing strange things under my name,” he said. A bon vivant who regularly hosted the Dutch royal family on his yacht, Something Cool, Freddie Heineken was also a marketing master, says The Times. He gave the brewer back its traditional green label and tweaked the beer to suit national markets. He ran a tight ship, but with humour. “I do not sell beer, but gaiety,” he said. Even being kidnapped in 1983 failed to quash his spirits. After a three-week ordeal, Freddie claimed the kidnappers had tortured him by making him drink Carlsberg. Following Freddie’s death in 2002, there was “frantic speculation of an imminent unwinding of the family’s stake”, says the FT. It may have been no bad thing. After years of growth, Heineken had become an also-ran in a consolidating industry; impeded from expansion, many said, by the family’s reluctance to loosen its grip by issuing shares to fund acquisitions. But while Charlene showed no desire to run the business, she also showed no signs of being prepared to let it go. After studying law at the University of Leiden, she briefly became an intern at Heineken before marrying Michel de Carvalho and moving to London. She became a patron of the arts and a mother of five but never stopped calling the shots at Heineken, says BusinessWeek: she retained a say over everything, from packaging to acquisitions. And behind her stands her husband, Michel, now vice chairman of Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, and the one who now “speaks for the family” on the Heineken board. Michel de Carvalho’s life “reads like something out of Hello magazine”, says The Daily Telegraph. Born of Brazilian-English parents, he became a child acting star and later skied for Great Britain in three Winter Olympics. De Carvalho seemed destined for Hollywood, and later said that quitting acting was “just about the most stupid decision” he ever made. But he’s been no slouch as a banker, rising from a junior position at Nikko Securities to become one of Citigroup’s leading men in London and a driving force in securing Heineken for the next generation. Charlene, too, has publicly vowed to keep the company independent – she hopes her eldest son will eventually take the reins, noting that the family is “part of Heineken’s past, present and future”. Shored up by the spoils of the Smith & Newcastle deal, there’s not much sign of that changing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadia Sllim Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 If Carlsberg did takeovers maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Bognor Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 If Carlsberg did takeovers maybe? Ah, but Heineken refreshes the football clubs, that other beers cannot reach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadia Sllim Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 Ah, but Heineken refreshes the football clubs, that other beers cannot reach. True, at least we do not have to follow the bear now! FFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Bognor Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 (edited) True, at least we do not have to follow the bear now! FFS. Ah, but good things come to those that wait. Anyway, your last line was Brilliant! I bet you drink Carling Black Label! Edited 4 April, 2009 by Johnny Bognor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Bizzle Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 I have a friend who lives in Broughton (spl??? i'm still drunk) who is a billionaire maybe she can buy us, she is also ridiculously fit!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 If Carlsberg did takeovers maybe? Probably the best takeover in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eelpie Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 Perhaps her Brazilian links knew someone who knew someone who knew the guy from Southampton who started footie in Brazil.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintRobbie Posted 4 April, 2009 Share Posted 4 April, 2009 I like Brazilians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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