Profile: Chile's president-elect Sebastian Pinera

SANTIAGO, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Right-wing candidate and former president, Sebastian Pinera, returned to Chile's presidency on Sunday, after winning the presidential run-off with over 54 percent of votes.

The following is a brief profile of the president-elect.

Sebastian Pinera, in full Miguel Juan Sebastian Pinera Echenique, was born on Dec. 1, 1949 in Chile's capital city of Santiago.

Pinera spent his early childhood in Belgium and New York, where his father worked as a diplomat.

He returned to Chile in 1955 and was enrolled in the Divine World College, from which he graduated in 1967.

Pinera graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1971 and later obtained a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Harvard University, where he graduated with a PhD in economics.

He is married to Cecilia Moral and has four children.

Pinera's interest in politics came from his father, who founded the Christian Democratic Party of Chile, a mainstay in the Chilean parliament.

Pinera has held a long career of almost 30 years in politics, since joining the right-wing National Renewal coalition and being elected as senator in 1990.

He made an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2005 as the candidate of the National Renewal party.

He ran again in 2009 and served in 2010-2014 as Chile's first conservative president since the end of Augusto Pinochet's rule in 1990.

Pinera also worked for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, opened his own construction firm, Tolten, and was a consultant for the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank.

The millionaire's business success has seen many milestones. He brought the Visa and MasterCard credit cards to Chile through his firm, Bancard, which also represented Apple in Chile. He bought the national airline, Lan, became owner of the Chilevision television station, and was the largest individual shareholder of Colo-Colo, Chile's most prestigious football club. Enditem