This is a profile image of Alexandre Sawaya

Alexandre Sawaya

Senior PartnerSão Paulo

Leads the Financial Institutions and Risk & Resilience Practices in Latin America

Alexandre leads the Financial Institutions and the Risk & Resilience Management Practices in Latin America. He joined the São Paulo office in 1998, and since then has primarily focused his work on Financial Institutions but also served clients in Retail, Infrastructure, and Telecom. In addition to Latin America, he has served emerging markets in the Middle East, Asia and South Africa.

His recent work includes:

  • developing a strategic agenda for a major credit bureau in Brazil, with a focus on expansion to new business lines, pricing, and distribution
  • supporting a global telecommunications company on a major collections improvement program for 12 Latin American countries
  • partnering with the consumer finance arm of a major global retailer on a strategy for financial products and services, credit and collections, and partnerships and alliances
  • developing and implementing a broad transformation program for one of the largest consumer finance companies in Latin America, with initiatives ranging from branding and pricing to sales force management and credit and collections
  • helping a leading Middle East bank structure a consumer finance company focusing on card operations and risk management
  • building a card-focused financial services division with a major retailer in South Africa.

Prior to McKinsey, Alexandre worked in the financial sector for two global banks, focusing on derivatives, corporate banking and corporate finance.

Published work

Addressing the coronavirus impact on customer delinquency,” McKinsey & Company, March 2020

Lessons from leaders in Latin America’s retail banking market,” McKinsey & Company, July 2019

Creating value through credit card partnerships in Latin America” (PDF–379 KB), McKinsey & Company, March 2011

Education

University of Michigan
MBA

Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo
BSE, production engineering