Gabriella Icaza knows how to make an impact. Dressed in a multi-coloured blouse, bright green skirt and smoking a long, thin Capri cigarette, she sweeps into the room like a whirlwind.
Her first action is to adjust a crooked picture. "This is my office," she declares and is probably the only JP Morgan executive in the world who can truly say that. When the firm moved its headquarters from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo in 1987, Icaza, a managing director and star originator, stayed behind.
"My family is more important than my job. I informed them [JP Morgan] of the parameters of my job and they respected it," she says, while acknowledging that JP Morgan is a firm that likes to move people about and have them spend time in different departments.
From day one in 1983, Icaza has gone her own way and the results have been so good that, sensibly, no-one has interfered. "When I was hired I was already 30-something with kids. I never went on the training programme. I said: 'forget it.'"
The fact is that Icaza has a reputation second to none in Brazil and all the competitors would like to poach her.