MORAN — It’s safe to say Deb Tynon never envisioned a former classmate as a head of industry.
But today, the former foreign exchange student, Laercio Cosentino, is CEO of Brazil’s largest software company.
It was the autumn of 1976 and Tynon’s senior year at Marmaton Valley High School that her family — E.J. and Barb Seifker and sisters Jamie and Susan — hosted Cosentino.
A few years later and back in his homeland, Cosentino, then just 23, founded a small business dedicated to creating and maintaining software for small and medium-sized businesses.
That company, Totvus (pronounced “Totus”) has since become Brazil’s dominant enterprise software market.
Susan Siefker reconnected with Cosentino earlier this month via — you guessed it — Facebook.
She, sister Deb and mother Barb shared their story with the Register, and how they learned their long-ago houseguest became “Latin America’s Bill Gates.”
E.J. AND Barb Siefker had never hosted a foreign exchange student before or since, but did so in this case after Deb spent six months studying in Brazil.
As part of the exchange program, the Siefkers were obligated to host a student for a few months, “so Laercio just came back with Deb,” Barb explained.
As one might expect, he was a fish out of water. He knew barely enough English to get by and had never seen a snowflake.
His other Marmaton Valley classmates, unable to pronounce Laercio’s name (“Lair-See-Yoh”), instead just referred to him as “Fred.”
“And that winter was cold, cold, cold,” Barb laughed. “He loved every day of it.”
Cosentino especially enjoyed the locals’ version of sledding.
“We rode around on car hoods,” Deb said. “He loved it.”
Deb remembers Laercio’s other talents.
“He’s an amazing artist,” she said. “He did some amazing drawings.”
Proof of the value of immersion, Barb noted that Cosentino learned to speak English “pretty well” in his short time here.
“We never did learn how to speak Portuguese though,” she said.
Portuguese is Brazil’s native language.
“I enjoyed having him around because I’d never had a brother,” Susan recalled.
E.J. Siefker purchased a pair of coveralls to help Cosentino cope with the cold.
“He helped work cattle,” Barb recalled, “and he loved those overalls. He was always wearing them.”
And just like that — as soon as Cosentino engrained himself in the community — it was time for him to leave.
Perhaps Barb had an inkling her houseguest was destined for a career in computers. She recalled him taking with him a container filled with assorted computer equipment.
“I”m not even sure what was in there, but he made sure it was sealed perfectly when he left,” Barb said. “He didn’t want anything to happen to it.”
AFTER HIGH school, Cosentino earned an engineering degree at the University of Sao Paolo in 1982.
An article from Latin Trade picks up the story from there.
In 1983, Cosentino worked as an engineer at SIGA, a Brazilian maker of mainframe software, and had convinced his boss to allow him to set up a separate business to concentrate on serving small and medium-sized businesses.
Together, he and his boss, Ernesto Haberkom, set up a new company, Microsiga Software Company.
The pair divided Brazil into 44 sales territories and pursued each aggressively. “If we didn’t do it, someone else would,” Cosentino told the publication. “The idea was to create an area where we would stand out.”
In the early 1990s, Cosentino decided to shift gears, pulling away from software programming and instead focusing on acquisition. Microsigo was going to start buying its competitors.
Business grew steadily, and from 2005 to 2008, the firm had acquired Microsiga’s three main competitors.
The behemoth changed its name in 2006 to Totvs.
GLEN TERRILL, retired Marmaton Valley principal, was the school administrator when Cosentino stayed with the Siefkers.
When contacted by the Register, he recalled only bits and pieces of the young Brazilian.
“I’m not sure if we can take credit for what he’s accomplished,” Terrill said with a chuckle. “Or maybe we can.”
Susan Siefker, meanwhile, notes the historical significance of hosting the young Brazilian.
Marmaton Valley, after all, has produced a Rhodes Scholar (Kelly Welch) and a Miss America (Debra Barnes) in its heyday.
“I think this gives Debbie Barnes a run for her money as MVHS’s most distinguished alumni,” Susan said.
Attempts by the Register to reach Cosentino were unsuccessful.
PHOTO: Laercio Cosentino was a foreign exchange student who stayed with E.J. and Barb Siefker and their family briefly in late 1976. He later became Brazil’s pre-eminent computer software provider. Above is Cosentino today. Below from left is Cosentino with his host family, Jamie, Deb, Susan, Barb and E.J. Siefker. PHOTOS COURTESY OF COMPUTER WORLD (TOP) AND THE SIEFKER FAMILY
