Bio
I was born in a very small city in Brazil called Araguari, where I lived until the age of 7. During my childhood I was an observer and an interested student. I watched the adults and their things always amazed me. Child things, not so much. When I was 5 years old, at the same time I struggled to learn how to ride a bike, I felt I was ready to open my first business (the bracelets I “invented” and crafted didn’t sell very well).
Things changed a bit when our family moved to a bigger city, Uberlândia, about 20 miles away from Araguari. I made friends with neighbors that were my age and with less adults and older kids hanging in my house, I had an excellent opportunity to master all children skills: tree climbing, bike riding, skating and skateboarding, and to play and practice sports as I never imagined I would one day do.
Crazy inventions and business ideas continued to permeate my life. I had just become a teenager when I got my first computer. Soon enough, I learned how to use MS Office and Corel Draw, found a partner and together we started a kind of business that was common at that time: we typed and printed documents for students and professionals. I had the skills and he had the printer. For a few months we worked together and extended our portfolio to include business cards, flyers, posters, etc. He lost interest and I moved on. I used my computer skills to teach other people, assist professionals, take an internship at an offset printing business, also at an advertisement agency, learn HTML and CGI/Perl, do free-lance work and at some point, when I was 17, it was already time for college. I must say, having started to work early was one of the best things that could have happened to me. Besides all it taught me, living in a family always with a very tight budget, that little money I made allowed me to do most of the things the cool kids would do those days, without making things any harder on my parents. Mom and Dad always ensured my two older sisters and I had what was more important.
During my four years in college, great things continued to happen in my life. I not only learned Computer Science inside out and made great friends, but also I started my real professional life (real jobs, benefits and stuff), had my first serious relationship, bought my first car, became Uncle Rafa and opened my first corporation. My mind grew fairly big (the head already was), and when I graduated I felt I needed to leave my parents house and find a bigger city to live in. As soon as I decided so, thanks to the experience I had gained and a little push from my best friend who had just moved to the capital of our state, in a week I had a job offer and in less than a month I was gone. Oh, what a great farewell party I threw!
Mom didn’t like any of my ideas much. “Why would any one need to move out from Uberlândia?” she would ask. Gradually she realized she had no option but to resign. I continued to want more and in less than three years, when given the opportunity to move to the US, there I went again, on my greatest adventure thus far. So many more pages would be required to tell the stories I have lived since I moved to New York in 2006. For the purpose of this bio though, it suffices to say that I flew on a hot air balloon with the woman of my life and that together we went on quite long bike tours, including a 75 miles ride in a single day. Not too shabby for the kid who couldn’t ride the bike!
I now work for Stefanini, a Brazilian/multinational IT consulting company. I work full-time on projects for Bunge Global Agribusiness. I started as an enterprise architect, designing SOA applications, and over time I was trusted with different challenges and accumulated considerable responsibility. Integration, infrastructure and performance management projects are what occupy most of my time at work. I also advise a few startups, and that makes me feel really honored.
I am passionate about my profession. Internet, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship are my main interests. I dedicate considerable time to staying up to date with the latest announcements and business trends. As weird as it may sound, this is probably my favorite entertainment. Between work and my MBA studies, any real leisure time I get I use to go out and explore, to be with my girlfriend and friends, to go biking, to play tennis, to take pictures and to do anything else that makes me feel like that precious time was well spent.
This is it for the “Internets” records. The story continues in the real world…
- Rafael, 02/11/2010