Roberto Pisani Marinho (3 December 1904 – 6 August 2003) was a Brazilian businessman and tycoon who was the founder and owner of media conglomerate Grupo Globo from 1925 to 2003, and during this period expanded the company from newspapers to radio and television.
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Marinho inherited the newspaper O Globo and began working there as a reporter. Later he became the chief editor. Marinho founded and was the president of the Brazilian TV channel, Rede Globo, the biggest television network in the country; it now has 123 stations and associates.
Marinho is considered one of the most influential and powerful figures of the 20th century in Brazil.
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Biography
Roberto Marinho was born at 17:00 BRT on 3 December 1904 in Rio de Janeiro to Irineu Marinho, a publisher, and his wife, Francisca Pisani. His parents were of Portuguese and Italian descent, respectively. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was educated in local schools.
On 29 July 1925, his father Irineu Marinho started a morning newspaper called O Globo in Rio de Janeiro, which he had intended to complement his afternoon paper. He died three weeks later. At the age of 21, the younger Marinho fancied being a journalist and appointed himself as a trainee reporter at the newspaper he inherited. He advanced to chief editor six years later.
In the 1940s, Marinho expanded into commercial radio. In the 1960s, he took his company into television. On 26 April 1965, he founded Rede Globo, which became the principal TV station in Brazil and the second largest in the world. This was during the period of the military dictatorship, which pressured the media to support the government.