Wallace Cochrane Simonsen

Wallace Cochrane Simonsen was a Brazilian banker and the first mayor of São Bernardo do Campo, one of the cities pertaining to the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, most specifically the ABC Region.

Biography In his early professional life, he worked as a broker in the coffee market. Eventually he founded his own bank, Banco Noroeste ).

In 1929, he owned a property in Vila de São Bernardo, the old name for the district located in the city of São Bernardo, which comprised the current cities of São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul, Diadema and Santo André, although most of the government facilities were allocated in the latter one's lands. When Getúlio Vargas's intervenor (acting as Governor of São Paulo) Adhemar de Barros decided to transfer the city's seat to Santo André and downgrade São Bernardo as a mere district, a group of entrepreneurs, Wallace Simonsen leading, founded the Society of Friends of São Bernardo (Sociedade de Amigos de São Bernardo), claiming for emancipation.

The claim was successful, and in 1944 a state decree established the new city, including "do Campo" suffix to the former district denomination, and appointing Simonsen as the first mayor, which was eventually deposed by Adhemar de Barros in 1947 due to political divergencies between them, giving path to the ascension of Tereza Delta as the new mayor.