Departures of note

Milton Soldani Afonso was a Brazilian entrepreneur, lawyer and philanthropist. Born in Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, into a family of modest means, he sold sweets made by his mother as a child and moved to São Paulo at 13 to study at the Adventist college, working as a colporteur to fund his education. He later earned a law degree and founded the Casa Editora de Legislação in 1951.

In 1971 he founded Golden Cross, which grew into one of Brazil's leading health plan operators and, at its peak, the largest in South America. He also took over the Organização Santamarense de Educação e Cultura in 1985 and consolidated it as the Universidade de Santo Amaro (UNISA) in 1994, one of the largest universities in the São Paulo metropolitan region.

A committed philanthropist, Afonso maintained scholarship programs that supported thousands of young students and backed educational and community projects of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, including the creation of the Novo Tempo communication network. He died in Rio de Janeiro on 2 September 2026 at the age of 104.