ROGER AGNELLI, WHO TURNED VALE INTO A MINING GIANT, DIES IN PLANE CRASH WITH WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN

Roger Agnelli, who presided over an unprecedented decade of growth during the commodities boom that entrenached Brazilian mining company Vale SA as the world’s largest iron-ore producer, has died. He was 56.

Vale confirmed Agnelli’s death on Sunday, a day after he and six others — including his wife, son and daughter — were killed in a Sao Paulo plane crash. His single-engine turboprop came down in a residential neighborhood about three minutes after leaving Campo de Marte airport en route to Rio de Janeiro, according to Brazil’s civil aviation agency.

Agnelli, an economist, was president and chief executive officer at Vale — and the same company under its prior name Cia. Vale do Rio Doce — for a decade through 2011 during a period when iron ore prices spiked. He led the company to an investment-grade rating, oversaw more than US$84 billion in investments and acquisitions, and distributed US$17 billion in dividends.