Founding Partner and Executive Director of Rio Bravo Investimentos

Dr. Franco is considered by many the "intellectual father" of the Real plan, which halted Brazilian hyperinflation in mid-1994.  He has a distinguished career in government, academia, and business, and served as Brazil's Central Bank President from August 1997 to January 1999.  

Dr. Franco is a Founding Partner and Executive Director of Rio Bravo Investimentos, a leading financial services business in Latin America, which manages several investment funds, and is Brazil’s largest administrator of REITs, with approximately R$ 2 billion in assets.  Rio Bravo has been one of the leading advisors in mergers & acquisitions and financial restructuring transactions in Brazil, and has developed one of the most successful project finance practices in the country.

From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Franco served as Deputy Governor of Banco Central do Brasil, and from 1997 until 1999, as Governor.  In these positions, he had a key role in the conception and implementation of the Real Plan, including establishing foreign exchange policies aimed at stabilization and trade liberalization, creating exchange rate bands, and managing international reserves.  He also was responsible for the final phases of Brazilian Brady Plan negotiations, and for foreign exchange deregulation.  He led the restructuring of Brazil’s banking system, including the privatization of Banerj, Meridional, Bemge, and Bandepe e Baneb.

From 1986 to 1993, Dr. Franco taught at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, a post he took over again in 2004. He has been a visiting professor and held fellowships at the University of California Los Angeles, Stanford University, and Harvard University.  He also has written seven books and numerous articles, and still writes articles for Veja magazine in Brazil.

Dr. Franco has served on numerous boards, including: Molson do Brasil (beer); Caixa Vida e Previdência (insurance); and Brasif (retailer); Telesystems International Wireless Inc (telecommunications); Telemig Celular Participações S.A. (telecommunications); Amazônia Celular (telecommunications); and Multiplan (retail).

Dr. Franco has received numerous prizes and honors, including being named “Central Banker of the Year, 1998”, by Euromoney; Economist of the Year 1997, by the Ordem dos Economistas de São Paulo; and Winner of Haralambros Simionides Prize for best book in economics by Associação Nacional de Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia.