When, in February 2018, Bradesco announced that its new chief executive and successor to Luiz Carlos Trabuco would be Octavio de Lazari the news took many people by surprise.
Not the least of them was Marcelo Noronha, who immediately sought a meeting with Trabuco and Lázaro Brandão, the bank’s second CEO and the other key decision maker on the board regarding Bradesco’s line of succession. Brandão had been head of the bank between 1981 and 1999, when he became president of the board.
According to current and former Bradesco bankers who have spoken to Euromoney, Noronha was close to incredulous that the pair had chosen Lazari over him.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a former member of the management team at the time says Noronha questioned the choice of Lazari, who had only recently been appointed as vice-president of the insurance company Bradesco Seguros.
“This was crazy because normally you need to be a vice-president for four years and then you can run for president. [Lazari] didn’t have that preparation and he was completely unprepared,” reckons the source.
The reason for Lazari’s sudden promotion to head the insurance businesses was, apparently, to improve the credibility of his candidacy to replace Trabuco, who was approaching mandatory retirement age.
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