Who is Tiago Cavalcanti, the Cambridge professor recommended by Haddad for the BC

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, revealed this Tuesday (3) that he had suggested to the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the name of economist Tiago Cavalcanti for one of the vacancies open at the Central Bank. The other name suggested was that of the Secretary of Economic Policy for Finance, Guilherme Mello.

If effectively appointed to one of the two vacancies open at the BC – the Economic Policy and Organization of the Financial System and Resolution directorates -, Cavalcanti will have a mandate until December 31, 2029.

Cavalcanti has a degree in Economics from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), a master’s degree and a doctorate in the same area from the University of Illinois – the same where BC’s current director of International Affairs, Paulo Picchetti, obtained his doctorate.

As shown by the Broadcast (Grupo Estado’s real-time news system), Cavalcanti’s name was already quoted by the market.

Today, the economist is a professor at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom; fellow of Trinity College, of the same university; and part-time professor at the São Paulo School of Economics at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (EESP/FGV) – the latter, the same institution at which Picchetti teaches.

Cavalcanti has a history of involvement in politics, but not with the PT. In his Lattes CV, he reports having “participated in the economic discussions” of the presidential campaigns of Eduardo Campos and Marina Silva in 2014. An interview from the magazine Look from 2014 cites the economist as Marina’s “economic advisor”.

In this interview, Cavalcanti defended the granting of autonomy to the BC. At the time, this was one of the flags of Marina’s campaign, who was running in the elections against then president Dilma Rousseff (PT). He compared resistance to the independence of the monetary authority to that faced by the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

The economist also stated that the inflation target should be lower over time – it is 3% today, compared to 4.5% at the time. And he criticized the economic policy of the Dilma government, which reduced interest rates and increased fiscal spending, in the so-called “new economic matrix”.

More recently, Cavalcanti maintains a column in the newspaper Economic Valuewhere he already defended the “significant institutional advances” of the Central Bank with the introduction of Pix and the increase in competition between card machine acquirers, in an article from June 2024. These areas would be under the responsibility of the Financial System Organization directorate, one of those that are vacant.

In another article, from August 2025, the economist warned of pressure from interest groups on central banks, which seek to direct their actions towards private or sectoral objectives, despite formal independence. Speaking more specifically about prudential standards and the promotion of banking competition, he argued that BCs must preserve their mandates to control inflation and guarantee financial stability.

“By deviating from these functions, central banks compromise public trust, weaken the macroeconomic balance and, ultimately, impose costs on society and taxpayers,” he wrote.

In January last year, Cavalcanti signed a working paper of the Central Bank, in partnership with economists from the institution itself, the European Central Bank (ECB) and other universities, on the potential of financial reforms to reduce inequalities in the credit market.