Brazilian businessman Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello is the Chairman of Cozan who has an estimated net worth of $1.04 billion as of April 2016 according to Forbes. Considered as the world’s first ethanol billionaire, he is the 19th richest person in Brazil and 554th in the list of World Billionaires.

Also known as the “tractor,” Rubens got his nickname from the fact that his companies harvest sugarcane which built his estimated net worth of $1.04 billion. Another thing is that, he also had a ten-year court fight with his family members over the control of his company, Cosan, which was publicly listed in 2005.

Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello took over the company for ten years. Within five years only, he turned the firm into one of the largest growers and processors of sugarcane in the world. It is also one of the largest producers of ethanol. In 2007, he set up Cosan Limited, a firm with a dual share structure that gives some of his shares ten times the voting weight of ordinary shares. Such move was done in order to strengthen his control over the company.

Before he ventured into business, Mr. Mello worked as the youngest financial director for the Votorantim Group and has to thank his mentor Antonio Ermirio de Moraes for this. He graduated with a degree in engineering from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, one of Brazil's top engineering universities.