Day 3 - First day of work

After the police/gun incident yesterday, waking up for my first day of work in Sao Paulo was a breeze. I woke up at 5:30am like I usually do in the U.S., got some reading in and then got ready for my day. I met my colleague Uma Datla (EY Assurance Manager – Fort Worth, TX) in the lobby so we could share a cab to the local Ernst & Young office in Sao Paulo. We had received an e-mail over the weekend that the local E&Y office would love to host us for breakfast along with Endeavor (http://www.endeavor.org/), our local partner/sponsors.

Given the language barrier, we gave our cab driver a flash card with the address of our destination (Avenida Jusceline Kubitschek, No. 1830). He simply took the card, punched the address into his Tom Tom GPS. Three miles, 30 minutes and R22.00 later we arrived in front of four buildings with a sign that read condominiums. For a second we thought our flash card trick failed us and that we have been brought to a residential area, but no, these were business condominiums.
 Ahh…the things you learn every day in Sao Paulo.

The welcome to Ernst & Young Terco Breakfast was a huge treat! We were greeted by Jorge Menegassi, Brazil and South America Managing Partner, who oversees E&Y’s $1 billion South American business. He and the rest of the E&Y and Endeavor team in attendance gave us a brief overview of the Brazilian economy and business environment – a very insightful discussion on the environment that exists and how E&Y is performing.

In attendance were:
• Elisa Carra - South America’s People and Community Engagement Leader
• Andre Ferreira – South America Strategic Growth Markets Leader
• Guilherme Sampaio – E&Y Strategic Growth Markets
• Beatrice Guido – E&Y Strategic Growth Markets
• Larissa Faresin – E&Y Sustainability
• Rodrigo – Endeavor Country Managing Director (Brazil)
• Pamella Goncalves – Endeavor Entrepreneurial Services
• Arthur Valadao - Endeavor Entrepreneurial Services

I may be wrong, but only in South America does the leader of a $1 billion a year organization take time out of his busy day to have breakfast with mid-level managers from the U.S. working in Sao Paulo. Being in the E&Y office, seeing the signage, speaking the E&Y lingo (TAS this, Channel 1 that, Channel 2 this, SASA that, MeCASA this…etc.) put me ease as I once again felt like I was home. If there were any first day jitters, they were gone and I was reminded how spoiled I am to be working for a global firm. Oh, and by the way, the breakfast spread was great! I forgot the name of everything they laid out but just trust me when I say it all looked and tasted good.

Next stop?...Pixel Labs to meet the Entrepreneurs I will be working for over the next 7 weeks.