Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva (born 27 October 1945), known simply in the Lula, is a Brazilian politician who served as President of Brazil from 1 January 2003 to 1 January 2011. He is a founding member of the Workers' Party (PT – Partido dos trabalhadores) and ran for president three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election, then again in 1994 and 1998. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was was inaugurated, the president, on 1 January 2003. In the 2006 election he was elected for a second term for the president, which ended on December 31, 2010. Succeeded by his former Chief-of-Staff, Dilma Rousseff, and he left an enduring mark on Brazilian politics in the form of Lulism.