Sebastian Pinera Biography

Chile's thirty-sixth president, Sebastian Pinera, is a businessman and politician. The son of an ambassador and descendant of two 19th century Chilean presidents, Pinera was destined to become a civil servant. He is well educated in business and economics, and began his career as a professor at three major Chilean universities. He later became involved with many successful business endeavors and finally began a political career. He was primarily responsible for introducing the people of Chile to credit cards and owned a nationally broadcast television station called Chilevision. Furthermore, he owned shares in Colo-Colo, a soccer club, and LAN Airlines, Chile's national airline. During his eight year term as an East Santiago Senator, he acted as a member of the Senate Finance Committee. After an unsuccessful campaign in 2005 as a National Renewal party presidential hopeful, Pinera won a majority vote in the 2010 election against Eduardo Frei. Utilizing a platform of job creation, expanded education and eliminating poverty, he also promised to advance Chile's relationship with other countries and became the country's first conservative head of state in over fifty years.