Luis Cezar Fernandes had planned to retire in two years' time when he turned 55. The founder of Brazilian investment bank Pactual was looking forward to a more leisurely life on his farm. But that was before two crises erupted - the global meltdown that has challenged all Brazilian bankers and the rift inside Pactual that led to staff breaking away to start their own operation and a change in the firm's ownership.
Fernandes is a self-made man who has overcome some long odds to reach his current position. His family was poor and he received little education. He left home aged 13 and worked as a messenger boy before starting an apprenticeship in a bank. In his late teens he was a back-office manager until an employment inspector pulled him up for being under age. But this turned out to be only a minor setback in a banking career that included a 12-year spell at Garantia - Brazil's best-known investment bank recently sold to Credit Suisse First Boston - before starting up on his own.
Outwardly, Fernandes remains ebullient about the inner conflicts at the bank and claims victory. But smoking his pipe and talking to Euromoney in a restaurant in Sao Paulo's Maksoud Plaza hotel, it becomes clear he is deeply hurt by the turn of events.