You started your career expecting to stay in Brazil. How did your early years shape the global, multi‑role leader you are today?
I was born and raised in Brazil, and for a long time I imagined I would live my entire life there, close to family and within a familiar culture. I studied engineering at the University of São Paulo and began my career in industry, which felt like a very traditional path.
Everything changed when I joined McKinsey. Suddenly I was surrounded by people who had studied and lived abroad, who were incredibly smart and exposed to the world. That experience opened my eyes to possibilities I had never considered and made me rethink what “career” and “life” could look like. McKinsey also supported my ambition to do an MBA abroad, which led me to Harvard Business School—and that decision really set the stage for everything that came next.
You became a mother during your MBA. How did that influence your career choices afterward?
I had my daughter while I was doing my MBA in 2005, and that moment forced me to pause and reconsider the life I was building. Before that, my plan was very clear: return to McKinsey, work hard, and eventually become a partner.
Becoming a mother changed my priorities. I was already married, and suddenly it wasn’t just about my professional ambitions; it was about the kind of presence I wanted to have in my children’s lives. That’s when an opportunity came up at Hypera (then a relatively small but fast‑growing pharma company in Brazil). They offered to sponsor my MBA and bring me back to São Paulo. It felt like the right mix: a high‑growth environment, in my home country, with the chance to build something meaningful while staying close to family.
At Hypera you led an IPO and 23 acquisitions. What did that experience teach you about M&A and integration?
Hypera was transformative. When I joined, it was still a smaller company, but we were very ambitious. I ended up leading M&A and integration, plus all board and investor communications and a significant part of the strategic projects. We went through an IPO, two follow‑on offerings, and did 23 acquisitions in three years. It was intense—long days, frequent travel, sometimes sleeping in the office.
What I learned is that M&A is only the beginning. Deals are intellectually exciting and strategic on paper, but value is really created—or destroyed—in integration. Integration is about people and processes. At first, we underestimated that. We went after synergies aggressively, assuming they would be easy to capture.
In reality, we made our share of mistakes: we merged sales teams too quickly and lost focus on specific brands, we tried to impose one set of systems on very different factories, and we weren’t careful enough about retaining key people and knowledge. The company ultimately became the largest pharma company in Brazil, but those scars taught me that integration is harder and more important than the transaction itself.
Can you share some concrete integration lessons for leaders who are doing M&A?
The first lesson is about focus versus synergy. Early on we tried to combine everything—brands, products, and sales teams—into a single structure to save costs. On paper, it looked very efficient. In practice, our salespeople suddenly had to manage hundreds of products, including new ones they didn’t understand well. Some brands lost focus and sales dropped. We later realized that sometimes you actually need two commercial teams to preserve focus, even if it looks less “synergistic” in an Excel model.
The second lesson is about systems and operations. We were a benchmark SAP client, very proud of our processes, and we assumed we could simply replicate our systems in every new plant we acquired. At one point, we bought a factory with a very different production process and decided to roll out our standard configuration anyway. It backfired: the system got stuck, and we couldn’t issue invoices for a month. It was a very painful, very expensive lesson in humility.
Finally—and most importantly—people. In the first acquisitions, we lost a lot of institutional knowledge because we didn’t invest enough in onboarding and cultural integration. We assumed people would just adapt. They didn’t. Many were anxious, didn’t understand their new roles, and eventually left. Over time, we built a structured onboarding process, peer support, clear communication of mission and values, and what we called “the Hypera way” so everyone had a shared culture to plug into. That human side is what really determines whether integration succeeds.
After such an intense period, what led you to shift toward private equity and then into tech and retail with Netshoes?
By 2015 I knew I wanted to be a CEO one day, and I also knew I needed broader experience. I left Hypera and started working with private equity funds because I understood M&A, governance, and integration deeply, while many financial investors were very strong in numbers but less experienced in operations and people. I felt I could add real value by connecting deal logic with how companies actually work on the ground.
Later, I joined Netshoes, a large online retail company, as Chief Business Transformation Officer. It was a deliberate move to learn about technology and digital retail—areas I believed, and still believe, are critical for the future. At Netshoes I had to translate everything I knew from pharma and private equity into a fast‑moving tech and e‑commerce environment.
It was also a turnaround situation: the company’s financials weren’t healthy, so instead of buying companies I found myself selling assets, like our Mexican operations, and implementing performance metrics and OKRs to move from a “startup” mentality to a sustainable, profit‑oriented business.
You then became a partner in a private equity firm and later CEO of Globo Farmacêutica. How did you balance growth with culture there?
Joining Baraúna as a partner was a very entrepreneurial phase. I could invest alongside the fund and sit on boards, influencing strategy and operations without being the day‑to‑day manager. After three years, we acquired Globo Farmacêutica, a 50‑year‑old family‑owned pharma company, and I stepped in as CEO.
At Globo, we doubled revenues in the first year. We expanded our commercial footprint, strengthened marketing, opened new clients, and rebranded the company. But we did it without throwing away its heritage. In pharma, quality and trust are everything, so I kept key people with deep technical and operational knowledge, and combined them with new leaders who brought a growth mindset and stronger commercial and marketing skills.
The goal wasn’t to be “aggressive” for its own sake, but to instill a culture oriented toward growth and innovation while respecting the company’s history and values.
Today you have a portfolio career—boards, teaching, and consulting. Why did you choose this path at this stage of your life?
After leaving Globo at the end of 2024, I reflected on the range of experiences I had accumulated: consulting, industry, IPOs, M&A, private equity, CEO roles, turnarounds. I realized I didn’t have to choose just one lane. I’m almost 50, and I wanted a career model that allowed me to have impact in multiple arenas while staying closer to my family.
So now I have what I call a portfolio life. I founded NG Consulting Partners, focusing on pre‑M&A preparation and post‑merger integration—helping companies design governance, processes, and culture so that deals actually create value. I sit on boards, including the endowment of Amigos da Poli, which became the largest academic endowment in Latin America, and a major health clinic in Brazil.
I also teach leadership and entrepreneurship at Link School of Business, a very entrepreneurial university that encourages students to start companies and think globally. This mix lets me advise, teach, and govern while still being present as a mother and traveling with my three children to show them the world.
You’ve negotiated and worked across many cultures. What are some cultural lessons that leaders often underestimate?
Every culture has its own negotiation style, and if you don’t understand it, you can misread the signals completely. In Mexico, for example, I once heard “we just changed a word in the contract,” which sounded minor. In fact, they had changed the entire concept of the agreement. Brazilians tend to be more direct in their bluffing—you see it more clearly in the conversation.
With Japanese counterparts, on the other hand, it can feel like they agree with you because they are so polite, but that doesn’t mean real alignment. In Europe people are also very polite and often less straightforward than Americans, who tend to be direct and expect you to be equally clear and concise. If you use the wrong style for the culture, you can easily derail a negotiation.
My advice is: if you don’t know the culture well, find a local partner or at least talk to people who do. I often reach out to my YPO and HBS networks to ask, “How do you negotiate with people from this country?” That kind of benchmarking saves a lot of time and mistakes.
What drives you today, and what advice do you give to younger professionals starting their careers in such a fast‑changing world?
What drives me is impact. I only accept a board seat, a consulting project, or a teaching role if I believe I can truly make a difference. At this stage, I’m not interested in titles for their own sake. I want to help companies grow, shape better leaders, and contribute to the next generation of entrepreneurs.
For young people, my main advice is to seek diverse experiences and stay very open. The world is changing incredibly fast, especially with AI reshaping how we work and live. Don’t just think about what matters to you today—ask yourself what will still matter 20 or 30 years from now. For me, it’s impact and helping others. For you, it may be something different, but once you know that core driver, you can experiment with different paths while staying true to what will still be meaningful over a long life.
