By André Vieira, Brazil Stock Guide – Between memories of a financial market that no longer exists and the constant reinvention that defined his journey, Luiz Cezar Fernandes returns to the spotlight with Cezar, a 350-page biography published by Best Business (Ed. Record). Written by journalist Alessandro Greco, the book revisits Fernandes’s early partnership with Jorge Paulo Lemann at Garantia, the creation and turbulent years of Pactual, and the personal code he developed long before entering the upper ranks of Brazilian finance.
Born in 1945 in Santa Rita do Passa Quatro (SP), Cezar began working at 12 as a bank messenger and, at 14, joined Banco Brasileiro de Descontos (now Bradesco), where he delivered—and tore up—printed account statements. Before turning 20, he had already been a procurador, a branch manager, and transferred to Rio de Janeiro. After passing through several brokers and banks, he crossed paths with Lemann at the Libra brokerage — an encounter that would redirect the course of his life.
From Garantia to the rupture with Sicupira
In 1971, Lemann founded the Garantia brokerage and brought Cezar in as a partner. The duo interned at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in New York, a trip in which Cezar took along the young intern Marcel Telles. Returning to Brazil, they brought ideas that would help structure the country’s modern financial plumbing — including the creation of Cetip, the Selic system, and the shift from physical to digital CDBs.
But the partnership cracked. In 1982, Cezar broke with the partners — including Beto Sicupira — after clashes over methods and management philosophy. It marked the abrupt end of his first major cycle.
Pactual: ascent, brilliance, and collapse
In 1983, he launched his next chapter: the founding of Pactual, initially as a DTVM, backing two young economists — former minister Paulo Guedes and André Jakurski — to join him. The bank grew rapidly, made bold market calls, and became a breeding ground for the next generation of financiers. In 1992, Pactual appeared on the cover of Exame magazine after posting a 59% return — “the man who made a fortune in chaos.”
The hardest chapter came later. LatinPart, his personal investment company, collapsed with losses exceeding US$ 140 million. To cover the hole, Cezar was pressed into selling his Pactual stake to the very partners he had brought in — including André Esteves. By 1999, he had fully exited the bank he created from scratch.
After leaving Pactual, he retreated to Fazenda Marambaia, in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro, where he began raising sheep and, more recently, developing a real-estate project in partnership with BTG Pactual — an unexpected, almost circular return to an institution descended from his original creation, he told to Brazil Stock Guide.
A night of tributes: Cezar on Lemann and Esteves
At the crowded launch event last Monday at Livraria Travessa, in São Paulo’s Iguatemi mall, Cezar was invited to reflect on the two figures who defined his professional life: Jorge Paulo Lemann and André Esteves. On Lemann, he spoke with unmistakable admiration: “I learned discipline and the determination to pursue goals from Lemann. He had a vision I had never seen before. To me, he is one of the greatest entrepreneurs Brazil has ever produced. Extraordinary.”
On Esteves, the tone was that of a mentor recalling a prodigy: “I selected André back then to run the distribution bank I wanted to build. I had already bet on him. He is disciplined, very intelligent, and above all, extremely dedicated.” He then described what he sees as Esteves’s defining trait: “If he doesn’t know what you’re talking about, he goes back, studies, and the next day he masters the subject. He goes after knowledge. He is one of the most disciplined people I know.”
The decalogue that shaped a financier
Across victories, fractures, and reinventions, Greco highlights the personal decalogue Cezar has followed since youth — ten rules that helped shape the man behind the institutions:
- Be determined in everything you do.
- Don’t fear changes along the way.
- Be relentless in your personal growth.
- Defend what you believe in.
- Dream — and keep dreaming big.
- Work with people more capable than you.
- Have many projects; never rely on just one or two.
- Expect no recognition from those you helped.
- Always look to the future, but prepare for it in the present.
- Tell the truth — it’s always cheaper.
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