Pedro Moreira Salles

Pedro Moreira Salles is a Brazilian billionaire businessman, banker, and the chairman of Itaú Unibanco, founded by his father Walter Moreira Salles, and the largest non-government banking institution in Brazil.

Career

Salles has been unofficially involved with Unibanco since birth, since the bank was headed for several decades by his father, the late Walter Moreira Salles. Pedro joined Unibanco in 1989 and became chairman in 1997, after having been vice chairman for almost six years. In April 2004, Salles became CEO. As of 2016, he is chairman of Itaú Unibanco Holding.
Salles is a member of the Group of Fifty - a non-profit initiative, composed of a Latin American executives and sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Inter-American Dialogue, in Washington D.C. He is a member of the advisory board of IBMEC, and vice-chairman of PlaNet Finance Brasil, a microcredit nongovernmental organization.

Education

He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and history from the University of California, Los Angeles. He subsequently attended the graduate program in International Relations at Yale University and the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard University. Salles is married to Marisa Moreira Salles and has two children. He is a brother of film director Walter Salles, of Oscar-nominated Central Station fame.

Personal life

Pedro Moreira Salles has muscular dystrophy and is a wheelchair user. He says he copes with the disease with "a lot of psychotherapy," yet he lives a busy professional and social life. He and his wife support stem cell research.