Time to celebrate
Events marking Odebrecht’s 60th anniversary are held in several parts of Brazil
written by ◦ Karolina Gutiez photos by ◦Holanda Cavalcanti

Looking to the future. This is the spirit of the activities carried out to celebrate the Odebrecht Group’s 60th anniversary with the aim of sharing and strengthening ties between its members, clients, suppliers, partners, government officials and communities.

The commemorations began in August with an advertising campaign titled “We build the future every day,” including ads published in leading newspapers and magazines and local media outlets in every community where Construtora Norberto Odebrecht is at work. A special supplement was distributed along with Folha de São Paulo and Valor Econômico newspapers, and a TV commercial aired on several channels.

An exhibition titled “60 Years,” which begins with the story of the first Odebrecht’s arrival in Brazil and narrates the history of the organization through to the present, officially opened August 23 at Odebrecht’s Salvador headquarters. Norberto Odebrecht, Honorary Chairman of Odebrecht S.A., personally welcomed a group of visitors and showed them around the exhibit.

From Salvador, the exhibition went on to São Paulo, where the organization has its headquarters in the Villa-Lobos Building. It opened October 13 with a cocktail party for company members and a performance by the Army Symphony Band.

A traveling exhibit comprised of 20 panels, it will tour Construtora Norberto Odebrecht’s jobsites and Braskem’s petrochemical plants so that all the Group’s members can learn a little more about their organization’s history.

Three commemorative dinners were also held in Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Speaking in São Paulo, Pedro Novis, President and CEO of Odebrecht S.A., declared, “While looking to the future, I choose to give less emphasis to our teams’ achievements and the challenges they have met over the years, and focus more on our entrepreneurial philosophy, which has brought us where we are today and will guide us on our future course.”

In Salvador, the show “Gil and the Four Corners” brought together on the same stage Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, Angolan songwriter Paulo Flores, Portuguese singer Maria João, Peruvian songstress Suzana Baca, and youths from the Ethno-Musical Group of the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios da Bahia. “I am very pleased that this meeting of different cultures was brought about by Odebrecht’s anniversary,” said Gilberto Gil, who is also a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. He also underscored the importance of the Liceu youths’ participation: “We must embrace this evolutionary process, the arrival of the new, the passing of the baton.”

Maicom Alisson, one of the youths from the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, paid tribute to Norberto Odebrecht by presenting him with a book on the 123-year history of that Bahian institution, which the Odebrecht Group’s founder helped revitalize after its headquarters was gutted by a fire in 1968. “Thanks to your vision of the future and sensibility as an educator, the Liceu has arisen from the ashes. Now it can present the results of its work on this stage, as well as in life, with art, talent and civil rights and responsibilities,” says Maicom.