André Esteves
Brazil
André Esteves
  • Former CEO, BTG Pactual (Financial Services)
Born Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1969. Bsc. Computer Science, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1989).
“You always need luck, right? But it’s important that when luck appears you are there working, right? If you are at home, you probably cannot benefit from the opportunities.”

Summary

André Esteves, the cofounder and former CEO of BTG Pactual, narrates the growth of the bank from a mid-sized institution to an international financial powerhouse over the course of his career. He started working for Pactual in 1989 and describes the business culture in Brazil’s investment banks as an incubator of high quality professional talent. Esteves explains Pactual’s approach to risk management as one key for allowing it to weather the economic turmoil of the late 1990s and early 2000s and its ability to seize opportunities in Brazil’s capital markets afterward. Esteves relates the events surrounding the sale of Pactual to UBS in 2006, the founding of BTG, and BTG’s reacquisition of Pactual in 2008. By 2013, when this interview was conducted, BTG Pactual had become one of the largest independent investment banks in emerging markets worldwide, achieving remarkable annual returns on equity of 25 percent.

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André Esteves, the cofounder and former CEO of BTG Pactual, narrates the growth of the bank from a mid-sized institution to an international financial powerhouse over the course of his career. He started working for Pactual in 1989 and describes the business culture in Brazil’s investment banks as an incubator of high quality professional talent. Esteves explains Pactual’s approach to risk management as one key for allowing it to weather the economic turmoil of the late 1990s and early 2000s and its ability to seize opportunities in Brazil’s capital markets afterward. Esteves relates the events surrounding the sale of Pactual to UBS in 2006, the founding of BTG, and BTG’s reacquisition of Pactual in 2008. By 2013, when this interview was conducted, BTG Pactual had become one of the largest independent investment banks in emerging markets worldwide, achieving remarkable annual returns on equity of 25 percent.

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Additional Resources

Additional Resources

  • BTG Pactual: Preserving a Partnership Culture [HBS Case]
  • “An Investment Banker’s Fortunes Rise with Brazil’s,” New York Times, September 28, 2011
  • “Is BTG Pactual Better than Goldman Sachs?” Financial News, April 17, 2012
  • “Wall Street Hegemony Broken as Esteves Taps Andes: Brazil Credit,” Bloomberg News, March 4, 2013
  • Andre Esteves Speech, Uploaded November 1, 2012
  • “De volta ao jogo: André Esteves e o BTG Pactual,” Uploaded December 6, 2012
  • “BTG Pactual of Brazil: Deep Impact,” The Economist, November 28, 2015
  • Video file of this interview available at Baker Library Historical Collections, histcollref+hbs.edu. Harvard ID holders can access the full-length video above.

Interview Citation Format

"Interview with André Esteves, interviewed by Aldo Musacchio, São Paulo, Brazil, July 1, 2013, Creating Emerging Markets Project, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School, http://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/."