An Interview with ‘The Professor’

This week we sat down with Professor Roland Saldanha in order to get to know ‘The Professor’ a little better.

In addition to working at Sidera, you’re a Professor of International Industrial Economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP.) Out of the 7 classes you teach there, which is your favorite?

Industrial Economics and International Economics, each has its charm.

You’re an expert on Brazil’s trade market, having trained importers and exporters on how it works for over 20 years. What’s the hardest thing for foreign investors to understand about Brazil’s economy?

The nonsense of our tax system, which bears the same root as our regulatory and institutional fragilities: everything is built not to work, creating value for public disentanglement favors or signatures. Once a privilege is conceded, other demands follow and, sluggishly, the boat moves.

Many of the other employees or partners at Sidera have received some or all of their education abroad. By contrast, you spent your entire academic career in Brazil, starting at Fundação Getulio Vargas, and ending with your doctorate in Business Administration at PUC-SP. What made you decide to stay in São Paulo for your education?

At this stage of my life being as close as possible to my daughters and family is a top priority. Being acquainted with frontier scientific studies can be done from here in Brazil and my career mixes academics and consultancy in a deep, but pragmatic way. I would definitely recommend for a young economist or lawyer to go for a high level foreign PhD program, but I don’t regret my earlier choice of staying here.

A lot of people don’t realize that São Paulo is considered a gastronomy capital of the world. As someone who’s somewhat of an expert on São Paulo, where’s your favorite place to go eat?

There are plenty of good restaurants on my favorites list, but home tops up! This can sound a bit “groundhogish”, but my books and my family are there…

If you’d like to read more about the Professor, read his bio here or check out some of his publications here