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Back to All ProfilesJosue Gomes da Silva


Josue Gomes da Silva

Vanderbilt MBA 1989
Chairman and CEO, Coteminas

From Brazil to Looming Giant

Gaining Skills for Going Global

Josué Gomes da Silva came from Brazil to business school with a clear and daunting mission—to Learn how to lead a company into a shifting global marketplace while his country's economy also was rapidly evolving. The future of the family fabric manufacturing business, Coteminas, depended on it.

Applying his Owen-sharpened knowledge of operations and strategy, da Silva carefully analyzed the world textile market upon returning to Brazil. Then he created an aggressive, phased strategy to increase manufacturing capacity, integrate with producers of finished consumer goods and integrate internationally.

Less than two decades later, Coteminas has grown from a $50 million operation into a multinational $2.5 billion business whose products are distributed among North America's best-known retailers. Now, da Silva is closing in on his next goal: a 10 percent share of the global market in bedding and bath textiles by 2010.
Since 1969, Vanderbilt Business has been building a new kind of business leader. The kind who aren't afraid to challenge old ways of thinking. Who don't think they've heard it all before (or pretend they will ever know it all). The persistent kind. People who are ready to work harder and dig deeper, and who put ideas over ego and performance over pedigree.

We attract the kind who are looking not only to succeed in the business world but to shape it for the better. While also shaping their skills, their careers and their futures. All while shaping our own community in ways that make a lasting difference for themselves and others.

You'll find stories here of Vanderbilt Businesspeople, people much like you, who have done all these and more.

We invite you to become a World Shaper yourself. Or to recruit one. And, most of all, to read how Vanderbilt Business has become such a richly shaping experience for so many. Close