Leila Pereira

Leila Mejdalani Pereira (born November 11, 1964) is a Brazilian businesswoman, lawyer, journalist and sports director. She became known for presiding over the financial company Crefisa and for her activities at association football club, Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, of which she has been president since 2021.

At Palmeiras, Leila became the club's sponsor through Crefisa and Faculdade das Américas (FAM). The partnership began in 2015, and Leila became an advisor to the club, becoming president.

Since the beginning of the partnership with Crefisa, Palmeiras has achieved important achievements, including two Copa Libertadores da América titles. The club also managed to win three more Campeonato Brasileiro titles.

In 2022, Forbes listed Leila Pereira as the fifth richest woman in Brazil.

Personal life
Pereira was born on 11 November 1964 in Cambuci and raised in Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, being the daughter of a middle-class family. Her brothers pursued careers in medicine, while Leila was raised to be a housewife and have children. However, against her father's wishes and with her mother's support, she moved to Rio de Janeiro to attend college.

She entered the journalism faculty at Estácio de Sá University and got an internship at Rede Manchete. She spent a short time in journalism, but had her first introduction to sport when she participated in the coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

When she was studying journalism, Leila met businessman José Roberto Lamacchia, founder of Crefisa, during a carnival party in Ipanema. The two were no longer separated and he started visiting her every fifteen days, since he lived in Jardins, in São Paulo.

Advised by Beto, she began studying law, graduating from Cândido Mendes University. She moved to São Paulo in 1996 and tried to be a judge, but was unsuccessful in a public exam and ended up opening an office. Leila and José Roberto Lamacchia married in 1999.

Partnership with Palmeiras
Leila started sponsoring Palmeiras in 2015. One of the first big moves in Crefisa's sponsorship of the club was the signing of striker Dudu, bought for approximately 35 million reais thanks to a contribution from the finance company.

At the time, Palmeiras was coming from a troubled season. The club spent 2014 fighting against relegation, escaping in the last round. In 2015, in the first year of partnership with Crefisa, alviverde had won the Copa do Brasil.

In 2017, she managed to become an advisor to the club. Thanks to a letter from former president Mustafá Contursi, she was able to prove that she had been a member since 1996, qualifying her to compete for one of the vacancies. With 250 votes, she ended up being the most voted in the election for the Palmeiras board.

To continue with a good relationship, Crefisa transferred 70 tickets to Contursi. However, in 2017, prosecutors suspected that these tickets were being sold, which would be illegal. The case ended up being closed due to lack of evidence, but the relationship between Contursi and Crefisa was broken.

Club presidency
On November 20, 2021, in a vote with a single ticket, Leila was elected the 56th president in the club's history, being the first woman – she received 1,897 votes from members out of a total of 2,141.

Shortly after winning the presidency, Leila celebrated another title for Palmeiras: the 2021 Copa Libertadores da América. Leila Pereira's term at the helm of the club began on December 15, 2021.

His first year as president of Palmeiras was marked by the achievements of the 2022 Campeonato Brasileiro, the Recopa Sudamericana and the Campeonato Paulista. In the women's category, Alviverde won the Libertadores and the Campeonato Paulista. The club was also successful at youth level, with titles in the São Paulo Junior Football Cup, the Brazilian Under-20 Championship and the Brazilian Under-17 Championship.

Palmeiras' supporter protests
Leila became the target of protests from Palmeiras fans, mainly from Mancha Alviverde. The manager's bad relationship with the organized fans began in the first months of Leila's management at Palmeiras, after the president did not respond to the fans' desire to change the reserved place at Allianz Parque. In 2023, Leila began to be criticized for the delay in hiring reinforcements for the season. In June, fans mocked the director's purchase of the plane during a protest in front of Crefisa's headquarters.

Purchase of Arena Barueri
On October 24, 2023, Crefipar, Leila Pereira's company, won the concession to manage Arena Barueri. Leila stated that the company will invest up to $100 million over the next 35 years, becoming the venue for Palmeiras games when Allianz Parque is not available.