Paulo Renato Souza

Paulo Renato Costa Souza (10 September 1945 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul – 25 June 2011 in São Roque, São Paulo) was a Brazilian economist and politician.

Life Souza took a degree in economics from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in 1967 and received a master's degree from the University of Chile in 1970.

Souza was one of the founding member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party in 1988 and was Minister of Education from 1995 to 2002 under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. During his time in office, Souza oversaw the implementation of the Enem exam system. On the other hand, during the same time, federal education faced an enormous scarcity of resources, which resulted in a huge strike in all federal education establishments throughout Brazil from the second half of 2001 to the first half of 2002.

In November 2006, Souza was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil to one of the 70 seats representing the State of São Paulo. He took leave of absence from the Chamber of Deputies on 27 March 2009 to take office as Secretary of Education of the State of São Paulo under Governor José Serra, replacing Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro. On 16 December 2010, he resigned this post, and returned to the Chamber of Deputies, finishing his term until 31 January 2011.

He died on 25 June 2011, from a heart attack while staying over the week-end at a hotel in São Roque, São Paulo.