Petrobras Dream Team Splits on Approach to Turnaround
- Petrobras had won praise for setting up independent board
- Conflicts about asset sales preceded Vale CEO's departure
Murilo Ferreira. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg
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This was the year Petroleo Brasileiro SA investors got what they had sought for decades: a chief executive with a mission to streamline and an independent chairman. Now one of them is gone.
Clashes over everything from Formula 1 sponsorship to the spinoff of a fuel unit created a rift between CEO Aldemir Bendine, 51, and the board led by Vale SA CEO Murilo Ferreira, 62. Bendine, a former state banker, and Ferreira, the reserved mining executive who leads the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, have disparate personalities. And they disagreed on how to conduct business.