Dream High, Think Big

The story of Theunis Marinho begins in the small town of Alto Rio Doce, in rural Minas Gerais. As the son of a bank employee, he learned very early that geographic stability was not in the cards for his family: his father was constantly transferred from branch to branch to troubleshoot problems and open up new markets for the bank.

Growing up in the countryside taught him two essential lessons: the simplicity of tight-knit communities, where a person's word carried more weight than any written contract, and the certainty that the world outside was vast and would demand real courage to explore.

Instead of grieving the lack of permanent roots, the young boy viewed every move as an invitation to make new discoveries, planting the early seeds of curiosity that would stick with him throughout his entire executive career.

Before turning eight, Theunis had already lived in six different towns across Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Moving that often meant switching schools, adapting to unfamiliar accents, and starting friendships from scratch at every stop along the way.

This nomadic routine forged an extraordinary emotional resilience in the young boy. While many children might have withdrawn into shyness, he learned how to fit in quickly, read the unwritten rules of each new environment, and avoid clinging to temporary comforts.

Decades later, in the global corporate arena, this early-acquired ability to absorb change without panicking became one of his sharpest advantages over colleagues who froze whenever the unexpected happened.

The forced practice of letting go of material belongings also taught him a lesson that no prestigious MBA could ever provide: anyone who learns to pack their entire life into a few cardboard boxes and keep moving discovers that true security is not found in home furnishings or a prestigious zip code, but in their own capacity to generate value and build trust wherever they go.

In São Paulo, Theunis faced the grinding routine common to anyone working to pay their own tuition: by day, he worked shifts at Banco Halles; by night, he studied business administration at a private college.

His experience was a world away from college parties and casual beers. His entire class worked hard in retail or commercial banking, showed up exhausted to evening lectures, and juggled demanding work reports with tough exams.

At the bank, his initial role was purely operational and heavy: manually handling the entire payroll for the staff, calculating wages and deductions on paper with obsessive precision to avoid a single error.

To keep from surrendering to the overwhelming fatigue that set in during late-night classes, he made a habit of sitting in the front row, engaging with the professors, and turning the real-world dilemmas he faced at the bank into classroom debates. This direct bridge between academic theory and daily toil turned college into a living workshop for problem-solving.