Graças Foster as the Transportadora Brasileira do Gasoduto Bolivia-Brasil. In 1998, Foster was working for a Petrobras unit that was involved importing natural gas from Bolivia. During this time, she met Dilma Rousseff, who in October 2010, would be elected to serve as the first female President of Brazil. In 1998, Rousseff was a relatively unknown energy official, serving in Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. Foster and Rousseff developed a lifelong professional relationship, based in their mutual support of the leftist Workers Party, which rose to power in 2002, resulting in the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as
Dilma Rousseff adviser for the PDT members of the Rio Grande do Sul Legislative Assembly. Rousseff and Araújo devoted themselves to Alceu Collares' campaign for mayor of Porto Alegre in 1985. Much of his campaign platform and government plan was prepared at their home. After elected, Collares appointed Rousseff as the municipal Secretary of Treasury; this was her first job in the executive branch. According to Collares, Araújo influenced him on Rousseff's appointment, but her competence also contributed on his choice. In the gubernatorial campaign of fellow PDT member Aldo Pinto in 1986, Rousseff had an advising role. Pinto's running mate was