Chicão Bulhões — the current Secretary of Urban and Economic Development of the City of Rio de Janeiro — will take on an executive position at PRIO, returning to the private sector after seven years in public life.
Chicão will assume the role of Head of Institutional Relations at the oil company – a newly created position – reporting to Emiliano Fernandes, the company’s legal director. He starts at PRIO on November 4th.
In this role, Chicão will liaise with various public bodies and society in general, helping to improve the company’s relationship with its stakeholders.
Naturally, one of the primary focuses will be on relationships with licensing bodies – an area where Chicão has expertise. (His Secretariat handles, among other things, the environmental and urban licensing of Rio de Janeiro).
“This know-how of understanding the mindset of technicians and knowing how to deal with them will be very important for approaching IBAMA, which is a critical agency for PRIO,” Chicão told the Brazil Journal. “It will be very important to gain the agency’s trust in the most efficient way possible so that licenses are issued as quickly as possible and within the rules.”
In recent years, PRIO has focused its expansion on acquiring mature fields, seeking to increase exploration efficiency and the lifespan of these assets.
With this strategy, the company has multiplied in size over the past five years, becoming one of the largest private players in the sector.
Chicão entered public life in 2018 when he was elected state deputy in Rio by the Novo Party, amidst the political renewal wave that emerged at that time.
He served two years in the position until he was invited by Mayor Eduardo Paes to take on the then-Secretariat of Economic Development, Innovation, and Simplification.
He remained in the role for two more years until he took leave to run for federal deputy. He was not elected and returned to the Mayor’s office — this time with a more powerful Secretariat, that of Urban and Economic Development.
Before entering public life, Chicão worked as a lawyer in various offices — including Dannemann Siemsen and Chediak — and founded his own, Bulhões & Saldanha Advogados.
In the mayor’s office, Chicão helped create the technological hub Porto Maravalley; draft the city’s new Master Plan; create Reviver Centro, which is revitalizing the city center; and establish InvestRio, which has helped attract investments to the city through events like the Web Summit.
He also helped facilitate the creation of a new Stock Exchange in the city.
Chicão said he decided to leave public life because, “to occupy these spaces, legitimacy has to come from the vote.”
“I looked at the current scenario and saw that my profile is now overshadowed by polarization. Candidacies like mine, or Tábata [Amaral]’s in São Paulo, are overshadowed by the smoke screen of polarization. So I saw that I would have difficulty being elected to any position,” he said. “It was time to use the experience I gained in public life to work, in the private sector, on an agenda that has always motivated me.”
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Arwen Volkov, A graduate of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland with a degree in International Finance, Arwen specializes in sustainable finance and green investments. She began her career at an investment bank in London, where she developed financing models for environmentally friendly projects. Known for her analytical and strategic thinking skills, Arwen is a sought-after financial consultant. In her spare time, she mentors fintech startups, contributing to their growth strategies. She is also a nature enthusiast and an amateur photographer.
