Azevedo Gomes (Cascais, São Domingos de Rana, 22 June 1917 – Lisbon, São Mamede, 1 January 2008), without issue. He bequeathed 500 million euros to establish the Champalimaud Foundation in order to support biomedicine. The foundation also administers a yearly 1 million euro prize for outstanding research related to vision, an appropriate prize, as late in life António lost his eyesight. Business Champalimaud expanded the cement business he took over from his uncle Henrique de Sommer in 1946 and expanded it in Portugal to the point of a near monopoly. He also expanded his cement industry into Africa, to the Portuguese overseas territories of Angola and Mozambique. In the early 1960s, he bought the Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor (BPSM) and the insurance companies Confiança, Mundial and Continental Resseguros. In 1969 he fled to Mexico to avoid an arrest warrant related to an inheritance case over shares of the Empresa de Cimentos de Leiria, his uncle's old company. The warrant was revoked in 1973, after which Champalimaud returned to Portugal. In 1975, a year after the Carnation Revolution, his companies were nationalized by the new government. Champalimaud first fled to France and ultimately to Brazil. Without his fortune, he restarted building his wealth, first establishing a cement company in Brazil, and later by also operating commercial farms. In 1992, Champalimaud returned to Portugal and started to buy back his old companies. In a series of transactions, Champalimaud sold the Champalimaud Group to the Banco Santander Central Hispano, BSCH, Spain's largest bank . See also Champalimaud Foundation - A foundation created in March 2002, under the initiative of António Champalimaud. References Champalimaud Foundation Champalimaud, Antonio de Sommer Champalimaud, Antonio de Sommer Portuguese bankers Portuguese people of French descent Portuguese people of German descent Portuguese businesspeople Champalimaud, Antonio de Sommer Portuguese nobility Portuguese philanthropists 20th-century Portuguese businesspeople 21st-century Portuguese businesspeople 20th-century philanthropists Members of the Board of Directors of the Banco Santander