Gleisi Hoffmann
Gleisi Helena Hoffmann is a Brazilian lawyer and a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, currently on leave. She is the Chief Minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations of the Government of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. Previously, from 2011 to 2014, she served as the Chief of Staff of the Government of President Dilma Rousseff. In 2017 she was elected a Senator for Paraná before becoming national president of the Workers' Party, which she led for eight years.
Biography
Gleisi Hoffmann began her involvement in politics in the student movement during her youth, becoming a Workers' Party' member in 1989. She graduated in law in the Centro Universitário Curitiba.Known for her public management skills, Hoffmann has served as state secretary in Mato Grosso do Sul and as municipal secretary in the city of Londrina.
She was a member of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's presidential transition team in 2002, and served as the financial director at the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric dam from 2003 to 2006.
She ran for the Federal Senate of Brazil in 2006 and for the office of mayor of Curitiba in 2008, losing both elections. At the time, she was the president of PT in the state of Paraná.
In October 2010, Hoffmann was elected to the Senate, receiving over 3.1 million votes, the most voted senator from the state of Paraná and the first woman to hold the office. After four months in office, she was appointed Chief of Staff, the highest-ranking member of Brazil's Executive Office, by President Dilma Rousseff.
In March 2025, Hoffman resigned as president of the Workers Party upon her appointment as Secretary of Institutional Affairs in the second Lula presidency.
Hoffmann was accused of receiving R$1.000.000,00 of embezzlement money from Petrobras in her campaign to the Senate in 2010. In 2018, Hoffmann was cleared of charges in the Supreme Court.
Gleisi was married to the ex-Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo; they divorced in 2019. They have two children.