About

Praised by several external sources as being ‘a leading GC in Brazil’, and an ‘outstanding legal and tax director with very accurate legal and business skills’, Fabio Leone is legal and tax director of Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA), one of the largest companies in Brazil. In charge of a team of 85 qualified lawyers and paralegals, Leone’s team are a crucial component to the success of Brazil’s leading retail company, helping it gross more than R$77bn and employ more than 146,000 people as of the 2015 financial year. During his tenure at the group, Leone has led the implementation of a complex corporate reorganisation, aimed at eliminating GPA’s subsidiaries and concentrating all of its retail stores within a single company. In addition, he has led an effort to concentrate and streamline the group’s litigation practices. Despite his relatively young age, Leone has been given credit for ‘successfully leading big tax and legal teams for a long time’ in the greatest private employer in Brazil, who are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Utilising his broad skills, in terms of tax affairs Leone was praised for his ability to make GPA to be more competitive in the sales market due to ‘always looking for new opportunities on tax matters that can decrease the taxation burden on companies’. An outcome of these organisational changes and proactive approach has seen a dramatic reduction in GPA’s legal costs, particularly important considering Brazil’s recent economic slump.