Livia Martines Chanes

Livia Martines Chanes was named CEO of Nubank Brazil in early 2024, in recognition of the growth she led previously as Brazil country manager for the multinational fintech Nubank. Nu Brazil gained 24 million new customers under Chanes’s leadership, according to the company, while the bank introduced more than 50 new products. Now Chanes, who joined Nubank in 2020, must steer the digital bank’s largest business, while another woman leader, Nubank cofounder Cristina Junqueira, focuses on international expansion.

Nubank, whose inaugural offering was an app-based, no-fee credit card, now counts more than half of Brazil’s adult population, or some 104 million people, as clients. A true disruptor, the group posted $2 billion in profit in 2024, versus $1 billion the year prior. Part of the bank’s success may be good timing, but there’s also this: Chanes once explained in an interview that Nubank sees itself “as a company that is obsessed about the customers,” with the goal of making them “fanatical.”