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 here." Another factor which would have weighed heavily on Lula's choice was the sympathy that Antonio Palocci had for Rousseff, recognizing that she would have a much easier dialogue with the private sector than Pinguelli, in addition to her support of the "Carta aos Brasileiros" ("Letter to the Brazilian People"), agreeing with several market friendly changes in the Workers' Party. Dutra said he was consulted by Lula, and praised Rousseff's technical merits while Secretary of Energy during his administration. "I could have weighted the scale in her favor at that time, but from the transition government forward the merit is