GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. , Brazil’s low-cost airline, announces Leonardo Pereira as GOL’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer. Pereira will be responsible for the Corporate Finance, Investor Relations, Accounting and Taxes, Financial Planning and Corporate Budget departments.
São Paulo – The company scheduled a Board of Directors meeting on February 4, 2009 to vote on Pereira’s nomination. „We are confident that Pereira’s experience in the capital markets will be a great asset to the company. He will be a great addition to our team and help us further maintain a transparent communications process with our local and international analysts and investors,“ says Constantino de Oliveira Junior, GOL’s president and CEO. Prior to joining GOL, Pereira served two years as the Director President of Companhia do Vale do Araguaia, a Brazilian commercial foresting company, and six years as the Director-Executive Finance and Investor Relations of NET Serviços, a leading cable provider in Latin America listed on the Bovespa (Level II), NASDAQ and Latibex. He previously served five years as Planning Director at Globopar, a media industry holding company, and 13 years in a number of roles at Citibank Corporate Finance Bank in Brazil, Asia, Latin America and the United States, including leader of the Latin American Aviation team. He is member of the Corporate Governance Committee of the São Paulo chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce and serves on the board of M. Dias Branco, Bovespa Novo Mercado member and Brazil’s leading food company. During his career, Pereira has experience with capital reorganization, raising long-term financing, issuing stock, mergers and acquisitions, as well as implementing Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. Pereira holds degrees in Production Engineering from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Economics from the Universidade Candido Mendes; he received his MBA from Warwick University (England). Pereira has also studied Finance at IMD in Switzerland and General Management at Wharton Business School, attended The Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) in Japan, and completed Columbia University’s Senior Executive Education Program.