User:JoeSantos1234/sandbox

Early Years
Joe Santos, the Canadian Entrepreneur and Creator of Breath Mate was born Jose Augusto Rodrigues Santos in Bombarral Portugal on November 28th, 1962. His mother was Maria Isabel Santos (Born in Bombarral Portugal; June 20th, 1932) and his father was Humberto Carvalo Santos (Born in Bombarral Portugal, April 27, 1928). He has a brother Jorge Enrique Santos born in Bombarral Portugal ( October 7th, 1958). On August 22nd 1964, the family emigrated to Toronto Canada where his father continued his profession as a diseil truck mechanic. His mother was a domestic cleaning lady at the time.

Schooling
Santos attended public school in Toronto Canada completing an Honours Secondary School Diploma in 1982 from Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from The University of Toronto, St. Michael College in 1986. He then worked 2 years at Patons & Balwins, a manufacturer of hand knitting yard to earn enough money to put himself through graduate school. He earned an MBA from The Pennsylvania State University in 1990 with a specialization in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Career
Santos started his early career in Marketing Management roles for various Consumer Packaged Goods companies such as Ralston Purina, Kraft, Cadbury, Nabisco, Parmalat and Georgia Pacific. He had a Proven talent for creating business growth through strategic implementation of marketing, sales, logistics and financial operations. He was extremely successful with new business creation as well as fostering strategic business growth. His interest in Entrepreneurship and his dislike of corporate culture resulted in his departure from the corporate world in 2006 to start his own business, Saralex Group Inc. Saralex Group was initially a Specialty Foods Brokers & Retail Consultants to overseas companies wanting to develop a business presence in Canada. In time, Santos created his own proprietary products such as Breath Mate and the Neesa brand of Rice and Ethnic products. The company grew and continued to expand into Natural Health Products. Finally, with Cannabis deregulation in Canada, Santos spear headed Saralex Group's expansion into medicinal cannabis product development and commercialization. Santos opened the European head office of his company Saralex Group in Lisbon Portugal, his country of birth in 2018.

Personal Life
Santos married his university sweet heart, Suzette Maria Arruda on July 7th, 1995. They continued living in mid-town Toronto Canada when their first child Alexandra was born in 1998. Their second chid Sara was born in 2000 and by that time, Santos was determined to spend more time with his children. He began the planning process which resulted in his departure from corporate life and the start up of Saralex Group Inc. As CEO of Saralex Group Inc, Santos was able to walk his kids to school, accompany the children on school field trips and have the professional autonomy he had always sought out. In addition to achieving professional autonomy, Santos became financially quite successful with a reported Net Worth of $18.7 Million USD. Santos continues to live with his family in Toronto Canada and in addition to being CEO of Saralex Group, he engages in philanthropic work.