The governor of the State of São Paulo appointed Marco Antonio Zago to serve as president of Fapesp. In a decree dated September 28, 2018, published the following day in the Official Gazette of the State of São Paulo, Zago was appointed based on art. 10 of Law 5.918-60, combined with art. 5th of the FAPESP Statutes, approved by decree 40.132-62.
Zago composed the triple list defined on September 3, 2018 at a meeting of the Fapesp Superior Council and delivered to the governor to choose the new president of the Foundation. The list was made up of the names of counselors José Goldemberg and Marco Antonio Zago, in the first ballot, and José de Souza Martins, in the second vote.
The list was defined due to the end of the president's term, on September 7, of Goldemberg, who held the presidency of Fapesp since 2015. Marco Antonio Zago graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, where he obtained master's and PhD, having completed his post-doctorate at the University of Oxford. He is Secretary of State for Health of the Government of the State of São Paulo.
He was dean and pro-rector of Research at USP. He was president of CNPq, coordinator of the Cellular Therapy Center of Ribeirão Preto (Cepid / Fapesp), clinical director of the Hospital das Clínicas of Ribeirão Preto and member of the National Biosafety Commission.
