Orlando City Owner Flávio Augusto da Silva Named Most Inspirational Leader in Brazil

Orlando City Chairman and Majority Owner Flávio Augusto da Silva has been named the most inspirational Brazilian leader and second most inspirational world leader by Cia de Talentos, the largest career consulting firm in Latin America.

The survey was taken by 67,000 Brazilian students, who gave only President Barack Obama more votes than da Silva among international leaders. Global personalities named on the list include the likes of Bill Gates and Pope Francis.

This is the second time that da Silva was ranked in the survey. In 2014, he ranked fourth among most inspirational Brazilian leaders and the eighth in the world.

"I'd like to thank everyone that has mentioned me in this survey," said da Silva in a club press release. "Among the many professional endeavors throughout the last two decades, I believe this recognition represents the voluntary work I've been doing through Geração de Valor over the last four years, where I've been trying to collaborate with other young entrepreneurs who are getting started with their professional lives, providing them with some advice from my past experience."

Geração de Valor is an online platform in Portuguese where da Silva regularly shares insights with young entrepreneurs. Da Silva started with a $10,000 loan in 1995 at age 23 and the desire to teach fluent English to adults in just 18 months. Wise Up now has over 400 schools operating in six countries, and was an official sponsor of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

In 2013, da Silva's businesses were acquired by Abril Educação, one of Latin America's largest and most influential media companies, in one of the biggest deals in the history of the Brazilian education industry. Today, da Silva is the president of T-BDH CAPITAL which invests in new ventures focused on education and the technology industry.

He is also involved in non-profit initiatives, such as Geração de Valor, which provides multi-media content to help young entrepreneurs succeed in their career or business. Each week, da Silva's videos, posts and articles reach more than 10 million young people in 20 different countries.

Da Silva's and Phil Rawlins have ambition toward taking the Orlando City SC brand global and elevating MLS to the top three most relevant leagues in the world in the next eight years.

What does all this mean? Well, not much in the grand scheme of things, but it's pretty cool to see the impact da Silva has had in his home country. I don't have any fancy survey results to back me up, but I'd wager the better part of my beer money that the majority of Orlando City's U.S.-based fans had never heard of da Silva before he bought the club. For those people, this is a validation of what kind of person has taken ownership of their beloved Lions.

In person, da Silva comes off as enthusiastic, honest and highly intelligent — much like Designated Player Kaká, so it's no wonder the two have hit it off. A fixture on social media, da Silva is constantly posting inspirational messages on Twitter and his recent wave of appearances on Periscope have this writer jonesing to learn Portuguese. If that's not inspirational, I don't know what is.

Survey Results:

Most Inspirational Leader — Global Ranking

1. Barack Obama

2. Flávio Augusto da Silva

3. Bill Gates

4. Papa Francisco

5. Jorge Paulo Lemann

6. Steve Jobs

7. Sílvio Santos

8. Mark Zuckerberg

9. Roberto Justus

10. Bel Pesce

Most Inspirational Leader — Brazilian Ranking

1. Flávio Augusto da Silva

2. Jorge Paulo Lemann

3. Sílvio Santos

4. Roberto Justus

5. Bel Pesce

6. Joaquim Babosa

7. Father / Mother

8. Dilma Rousseff

9. Abílio Diniz

10. Boss/ Former boss