Timeline

The Brazilian Banker Billionaire

As the CEO and Co-founder of Nubank – South America’s largest and most successful challenger – David Vélez has a disruptive reputation

Born in Medellin, Columbia in 1982, David Vélez comes from a large, extended family of entrepreneurs. His father, who co-owned a button factory, had 11 siblings, all of whom ran their own businesses, providing the young Vélez with an environment that thrived on innovation and disruptive ideas.

But Medellín was also a crime capital where drug wars and the cartels reigned supreme. The family suffered greatly, and an early memory for Vélez was leaving a shopping centre with his family just moments before it was bombed. Later, one of his uncles was kidnapped. The two events resulted in Vélez’s parents uprooting the family to find a safer place to live.

A passion for finance and innovation

At the age of nine, the family moved to Costa Rica, where he flourished, proving to be a fine student – and discovered a passion for the financial markets. Vélez attended a local German-language prep school, graduating as valedictorian and winning admission to Stanford University. By 18, Vélez had moved to the US and started his degree at Stanford, studying Finance. Upon graduation, with a newlyminted MBA, he qualified as a financial engineer.

The time he spent in California saw him explore a range of potential careers in the technology industry – and he considered various startup ideas, as well as positions in Google and Amazon.