Brazil: Mello to Align NOC's Strategy with Lula's Agenda

What happened: Petrobras shareholders elected Guilherme de Mello as the president of the board amid a reshuffle.

What does it mean: Mello, a close associate of former Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and architect of the administration’s economic policies, will bridge the gap between Petrobras and President Lula’s inner circle during the campaign season.

What happens next: Mello will work closely with Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard to keep the NOC’s wholesale fuel pricing aligned with Lula's electoral imperatives.

On 16 April, the Petrobras general shareholder assembly elected a new board featuring incoming President Guilherme de Mello (see Featured Personality). His elevation reaffirms President Lula’s treatment of the company as one of the country’s most important institutions of economic development.

Mello will bridge the gap between the executive team led by CEO Magda Chambriard and Lula’s inner circle, which must juggle its state-led development approach with the demands of re-election in October. For now, this means using Petrobras to put a lid on rising fuel prices.

Mello, who is the secretary of economic policy at the Finance Ministry, will work to ensure the company’s short-term decision-making aligns with the administration’s efforts to subsidize diesel and other fuels without jeopardizing fiscal stability.

Gasparino Returns to Represent Shareholders

Mello and Chambriard will be closely watched by Lula but also by returning board member Marcelo Gasparino, representing minority shareholders. Gasparino is one of Brazil's most prominent independent board directors, with a career built almost entirely in the boardrooms of the country's largest state-linked companies. He has a law degree from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, a post-graduate certificate in corporate tax administration, and has completed executive training in mergers and acquisitions at London Business School and the IOD (Institute of Directors in London).

Gasparino’s boardroom experience spans much of Brazil's SOE landscape. He has held board seats at Vale, Banco do Brasil, Eletrobras, CEMIG and Eternit, in addition to his prior tenure on Petrobras’ board. Gasparino also chaired the NOC's Health, Safety and Environment Committee and the Minority Shareholders' Committee before resigning in early 2025 over rising tensions with the administration.

His re-election by minority shareholders signals their concerns about the company's direction at a critical juncture amid rising energy prices. Moreover, Chambriard's acquiescence to the administration’s unsuccessful effort to impose a 12% tax on crude exports has alerted shareholders, who have chosen Gasparino as a sign that they will organize and push back.

Within corporate governance circles, Gasparino is regarded as a tenacious advocate for minority shareholder rights; someone who has fought contested boardroom battles at companies like the steel manufacturer Usiminas during its 2015-2016 crisis. He is combative and will oppose any move by the administration to place the burden of fuel price hikes on the NOC.

New Board Members

The administration also nominated and secured the election of two new members.

Fabio Bittes is an economist and associate professor at the Federal University of ABC in São Paulo, with a strong research background in monetary theory and public finance. A career academic who rose through Brazil's federal university system, former Finance Minister Fernando Haddad appointed him as a special advisor to the ministry’s Executive Secretariat. Bittes also sits on the board of BB Investimentos.

Within Brazil's heterodox economist community, Bittes is a well-regarded figure. He served as president of the Brazilian Keynesian Association and has won the National Treasury Prize (twice), the Brazilian Economics Prize and the Federal Budget Secretariat's Public Finance Prize. These honors affirm his high-level technocratic standing among governing circles in Brasilia well before Lula took office in January 2023.

Bittes has also developed a public profile beyond his academic accomplishments. He has engaged broader audiences through his more accessible writing focused on “popular economics” for the well-known daily Folha de São Paulo. Bittes also runs a YouTube channel where he explains economic concepts to general audiences.

In our view, Bittes teams well with Mello and Chambriard, adding an ability to speak directly to voters on issues of concern, including fuel prices and subsidies. Indeed, if Lula is re-elected, we believe Bittes has a bright future in the next administration. Consequently, we encourage investors and stakeholders to engage Bittes directly, either through his office at Petrobras or the Finance Ministry.

Rachel de Oliveira Maia is one of Brazil’s most prominent Afro-Brazilian female executives, with a career spanning luxury retail, corporate governance and social impact investing. She has served as CEO of Lacoste, Pandora, and Tiffany & Co. in Brazil, making her the first black woman to hold a CEO position in Brazil's corporate landscape.

After leaving the corporate world, Maia founded RM International — focused on social and environmental impact investing and projects — and the Capacita-me Institute, which provides education and employment-seeking support to vulnerable communities. She currently chairs the UN Global Compact Council in Brazil and sits on the boards of Vale, Hypera and Petrobras.

In 2024, Maia received an honorary doctorate from Estácio de Sá University in recognition of her leadership in social inclusion, diversity and social responsibility. She argues that social and environmental impact investing must function as a core business strategy rather than sheer marketing, framing ESG activities as essential to managing reputational, supply chain and regulatory risks.

Maia’s seat on the Petrobras board holds both symbolic and political value for Lula’s government, which has made racial and gender representation a signature theme. The appointment also signals the administration’s preference for an ESG leader over a finance or energy-sector technocrat.

Implications for Petrobras

The election of Mello and Bittes complements Chambriard’s no-nonsense management style and will likely curb the NOC’s more speculative renewable energy investments in the short term. They fully support Chambriard’s and E&P Director Sylvia dos Anjos’ drive to discover more oil and gas in Brazil, Colombia and West Africa.

Maia will keep Petrobras on its ESG track, possibly supporting more innovative programs to showcase the company’s social inclusion and environmental sustainability initiatives during the election season.

The administration’s new members will be held in check by Gasparino, who will focus on preventing the government from imposing a burden on the company’s shareholders in its efforts to confront rising fuel and fertilizer prices stemming from the US war against Iran. The signpost to watch is whether Gasparino builds coalitions of shareholders and other stakeholders, as well as with board members, to protect the company’s earnings in the coming months, or whether he waits out the shocks and election, hoping to play an even bigger role at the company should Lula lose in October.