The Quiet Dynasty of Jaraguá do Sul
In a year when Forbes counted a record 3,428 billionaires worth a combined $20.1 trillion, one of the more remarkable entries comes not from Silicon Valley or Shanghai but from Jaraguá do Sul, a city of 200,000 people in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Seven cousins, all grandchildren of WEG cofounder Werner Ricardo Voigt, now appear on the list — up from four last year — with a combined fortune of $9.5 billion (roughly R$48 billion). None of them runs the company. Most are in their twenties. One is still in university.
The three newcomers are siblings Amelie, Pedro, and Felipe Voigt Trejes, each worth $1.1 billion according to Forbes. Their wealth derives from shares in WEG (WEGE3) inherited from their mother, Cladis Voigt. They join cousins Eduardo and Mariana Voigt Schwartz ($1.7 billion each), and Lívia and Dora Voigt de Assis ($1.4 billion each) — the daughters and sons of Werner Voigt’s three children, who divided their stakes through the family holding company WPA Participações.
What Makes WEG Different
The source of the family’s wealth is not inherited land or commodity extraction — the usual routes to Brazilian fortunes — but an industrial manufacturer that has quietly become one of the world’s largest producers of electric motors, generators, transformers, and industrial automation systems. WEG was founded in 1961 by three partners whose first names formed the acronym: Werner Ricardo Voigt, Eggon João da Silva, and Geraldo Werninghaus. Control is shared equally among the three founding families through WPA Participações, which holds 50.1% of the publicly listed company.
From a workshop building motors for small factories, WEG grew into a multinational with operations in 41 countries, 47,500 employees, and trailing twelve-month revenue of $7.25 billion. Its market capitalization of around R$195 billion makes it Brazil’s sixth most valuable company. Shares trade at roughly 31 times earnings — a valuation premium that reflects WEG’s positioning at the intersection of electrification, renewable energy infrastructure, and industrial automation, themes that global investors have been willing to pay generously for. BTG Pactual recently called the company one of Brazil’s best long-term value generators.
Billionaires Who Don’t Run Anything
What distinguishes the Voigt heirs from many dynastic fortunes is their total absence from operations. None of the seven sits on WEG’s board or holds a management position. Lívia, who became the world’s youngest billionaire in 2024 at age 19, is studying psychology at university. Dora graduated with an architecture degree. After Forbes named her the youngest billionaire, Lívia posted on social media that she wished to avoid attention and would keep a low profile — an impulse that seems to run in the family. The heirs of the other two cofounders, Silva and Werninghaus, also hold minority stakes through WPA but do not appear individually on the Forbes list because their per-capita holdings fall below the billion-dollar threshold when measured in dollars.
The Voigt story is ultimately a WEG story. In a country where inherited wealth often means land, cattle, or banking, a family became billionaires seven times over because their grandfather built electric motors in a small town and the company never stopped compounding. WEG shares have returned over 2,000% in the past decade. The factory, it turns out, makes billionaires as reliably as it makes motors.