Henrique Meirelles

Henrique de Campos Meirelles (born 31 August 1945) is a Brazilian manager and former Minister of Finance and an executive of the Brazilian and the international financial sectors and former president of Central Bank of Brazil (Portuguese: Banco Central do Brasil) where he remained in office from 2003 to 2011.

He chairs J&F's board of directors, company that owns Banco Original, JBS and Vigor, among others.

He is also a member of the board of directors of Azul Brazilian Airlines.

He left the city of Goiania to study civil engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo (Portuguese:Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo) in São Paulo, where he graduated in 1972.

In 1974, he completed an MBA in Business Administration from Coppead Institute at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese:Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), UFRJ.

His career began in 1974 at BankBoston, where he worked for 28 years, with national and international operations.

In 1984, with appointment by a BankBoston board member, Meirelles attended the six-week Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School.

Meirelles also received an honorary title as doctor by Bryant College.

In July of that year, with his return to Brazil, Meirelles was appointed president of BankBoston in Brazil, a position he held for 12 years.

In 1996, Meirelles moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and assumed the position of President and COO of BankBoston worldwide.

He held the position until 1999.

In 1999, BankBoston Corporation merged with Fleet Financial Group, forming FleetBoston Financial.

Henrique Meirelles became president of FleetBoston Financial's Global Banking.

While in the United States, Meirelles was one of the most popular members of Bill Clinton's court case.

In 2002, Meirelles retired and returned to Brazil.

With a youth marked by public performances, when he was part of the student movement in Goiânia and led strikes against bus ticket and school supply prices, influenced by a political family – his grandfather was mayor of Anápolis three times, his father occupied roles in the State Secretariat of Goiás twice, and an uncle who was Governor – from then on Meirelles started his political career, to which he dedicated himself from 2002 to 2014.

In 2002, Meirelles ran for congressman in Goiás with the political party PSDB and was elected with the largest number of votes in the state – 183,000 votes.

His electoral success and the support of the international financial market received throughout his professional career in the private sector, caused Meirelles to be appointed by President Lula to the office of president of Brazil's Central Bank – Banco Central do Brasil (BCB).

In 2003, Meirelles resigned as congressman in Goiás and left PSDB to become president of BCB.

In 2005, he was the first president of the CBC to formally obtain the status of State Secretary.

Meirelles led Banco Central do Brazil during the eight years of President Lula's administration and, in November 2010, he announced his departure.

In early 2010, Meirelles ruled out a possible candidacy as governor of Goiás with the democratic party PMDB, at the request of President Lula who asked him to devote himself to the control of Banco Central until the date when he had to leave the role in order to run for elective office in early April 2011.

In 2011, three months after the announcement of his departure from the leadership of BCB, and at the invitation of President Dilma Rousseff, Meirelles took office in the Public Olympic Council.

In 2012, at the invitation of the president of JBS's board of directors, Joesley Batista, Henrique Meirelles took on the Advisory Board of J&F, the holding company that controls 7 companies, including JBS, the world's largest meat company.

The J&F Group has a total revenue estimated at R$65 billion.

Considered one of the most respected figures in the Brazilian business environment, in early 2012, Meirelles received 12 job offers from the private sector, among them was the presidency of Barclays and Goldman Sachs banks in Brazil.

With a budget of R$30 million, Meirelles acted with autonomy in the coordination of federal, state and municipal construction work until 2014.

In 2014, Meirelles was invited by the PMDB candidate to the government of SP, Paulo Skaff, to compete in the Senate in their political platform.

Meirelles denied the request.

In 2015, Meirelles was replaced by businesswoman Luiza Trajano at the Public Olympic Council.

Also in 2015, there were rumors that Meirelles would have been appointed by former President Lula to be Secretary of Finance during the 2nd term of President Dilma Rousseff's administration, starting in January 2015.

This was not achieved and Joaquim Levy took the office.

In mid-2015, following internal dissension in the executive power and friction in Congress, rumors re-emerged that Henrique Meirelles could be a strong possibility of replacing finance secretary Joaquim Levy, head of the Ministry of Finance.

His function, with a 4-year term, was to coordinate all investments for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

When Michel Temer became the interim president, in May 2016, Henrique Meirelles was nominated Minister of Finance and Social Security.

Meirelles was the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB)'s candidate for president of Brazil in the 2018 elections.

Meirelles, is the son of Hegesipo de Campos Meirelles, former attorney of Banco do Estado de Goiás and Diva Silva de Campos, a wedding gown designer.

Meirelles's party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement, announced in May 2018 his pre-candidacy for the presidency of Brazil.

On 2 August 2018, he officially became the party's candidate for president.

In the 2022 Brazilian general election, Meirelles has endorsed the candidacy of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.