Last month the 57-year-old’s dream came true: The self-described “progressive businessman” managed to sidestep the Luiz Inácio (Lula) da Silva landslide and get elected to Brazil’s 500-seat Congress, representing his home state of Goias. Given the sound thumping Lula and his Partido dos Trabalhadores gave presidential candidate José Serra, head of Meirelles’s Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, the banker’s victory was no minor political feat.
It was also a personal triumph. “After spending six years in the U.S., it was time to go back to my country,” says Meirelles, who resigned his Boston post in August to campaign full-time. “Brazil, like most emerging markets, needs an external flow of money. As a result, Brazil needs to understand international markets better, and international markets need to understand Brazil better. I can help fill that gap of knowledge,” explains the new congressman.
The banker, who spent 28 years with Fleet and predecessor Bank of Boston, comes from a long line of public officials, including his father, who served as a federal judge; an uncle who was a state governor; and a grandfather who was mayor of the town in which Meirelles grew up.
Congress isn’t his last stop, says the fledgling lawmaker, who, like many Brazilian office-seekers today, says his politics are “center-left.” Cabinet posts in finance, foreign trade, development and planning could all utilize his expertise and contacts. A governorship would seem the next logical step, and “I could be named for the presidency one day,” he muses. “Will people vote for someone like me? Apparently, that’s happening.”
