Nelson Barbosa holds a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a PhD in economics from the New School for Social Research (New York, USA). He served as Minister of Finance and Minister of Planning under Dilma Rousseff and as Secretary of Economic Policy under Lula. He also chaired the Non-Executive Board of Directors of the Bank of Brazil, the Vale mining company, and the BNDES. He is a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and the University of Brasília (UnB). Since January 2023, he has been a Director of BNDES, responsible for planning, institutional relations, and project preparation.