Acting president appoints new Petrobras CEO

Former Minister Pedro Parente will take office as Petrobras CEO. The announcement was confirmed by the presidency. Parente will replace Almir Bendine, appointed in February last year after Graça Foster resigned.

The new Petrobras CEO was chief of staff, planning, budget, and management minister, and also mines and energy minister under former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration, and has served as executive secretary of the Finance Ministry. Considered a skilled mediator, he was one of the negotiators of the Fiscal Responsibility Law whose text he delivered personally, in 1999, to then lower house speaker Michel Temer.

Chosen by President Fernando Henrique to resolve the energy supply crisis in 2002, Parente created the plan that prevented the collapse of the country's electric power distribution.

When leaving the government, Pedro Parente worked in private companies. He is currently chairman of the Board of Directors of BM&F BOVESPA, member of the boards of SBR-Global and ABC Group, and managing partner of the Prada group of consulting and financial advisory services. In 2012, he was indicated as one of Brazil's 100 most influential people in the builders' category, according to the Time magazine.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta