The president of the BNDES, Aloizio Mercadante Oliva, is an economist graduated from the College of Economics and Administration of the University of São Paulo (USP, 1976), with a master's degree in Economic Sciences from the Institute of Economics of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp, 1989) and a doctorate in Economic Theory from the Institute of Economics – Unicamp (2010). He is a retired professor of economics at Unicamp and a licensed professor at the Department of Economics of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). 

He was president of Atlética and the Academic Center of FEA-USP (1973-74), presided over the Association of Teachers of PUC - APROPUC (1978-87) and was founder and vice-president of the National Association of Teachers of Higher Education – ANDES (1980-84). 

Mercadante participated in the founding of the Workers' Party (PT) in 1980, having been vice president and director of international relations of the National Executive Commission. He also participated in the founding of the Workers Central Office (CUT), where he was founder and first director of the Department of Social, Economic and Political Studies (Desep da CUT), in 1984. He was a federal deputy for the Workers' Party (PT) in two terms (1991-1995 and 1999-2003), having been chairman of the Committee on the Economy and leader of the Bancada do PT (PT Caucas). 

He was a candidate for vice president of the Republic with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 1994 presidential elections and senator of the Republic for São Paulo (PT) in the 2003-2011 legislature, having been the most voted senator in history with 10.5 million votes. He was president of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, Leader of the Lula Government Support Block, leader of the PT Caucas, Leader of Congress, member of the Brazilian representation and president of the 2007-2010 Mercosur Parliament. 

He was Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, 2011-2012; Minister of Education 2012-2014; Chief of Staff of the Presidency of the Republic 2014-2015 and Minister of Education 2015-2016 under President Dilma Rousseff. 

Mercadante also chaired the Perseu Abramo Foundation.