# Luiz Cezar Fernandes and the Decalogue Behind a Financial Legend

*From his early rise alongside Jorge Paulo Lemann at Garantia to the later clashes with André Esteves at Pactual, a new biography traces the forces that shaped one of Brazil’s most influential financiers.*

- Published: 2025-11-19
- Updated: 2025-12-31
- Section: Insights
- Tags: Alessandro Greco, André Esteves, Best Business, Brazilian banking pioneers, Brazilian finance history, BTG Pactual partnership, Cetip, Garantia, Jorge Paulo Lemann, LatinPart, Pactual, Selic
- URL: https://brazilstockguide.com/insights/luiz-cezar-fernandes-garantia-pactual-biography-decalogue/

![](https://i0.wp.com/brazilstockguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/IMG_3550.jpg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

**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*.

![](https://i0.wp.com/brazilstockguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Cezar.jpg?resize=706%2C1024&ssl=1)

### **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:

1. **Be determined in everything you do.**
2. **Don’t fear changes along the way.**
3. **Be relentless in your personal growth.**
4. **Defend what you believe in.**
5. **Dream — and keep dreaming big.**
6. **Work with people more capable than you.**
7. **Have many projects; never rely on just one or two.**
8. **Expect no recognition from those you helped.**
9. **Always look to the future, but prepare for it in the present.**
10. **Tell the truth — it’s always cheaper.**

---

Source: Brazil Stock Guide, https://brazilstockguide.com/insights/luiz-cezar-fernandes-garantia-pactual-biography-decalogue/