Silvia Machado is the executive director of fashion and beauty at Brazilian retail giant Magazine Luiza, a firm founded in 1957 known colloquially as ‘Magalu’. Since 2020, she has helped the brick-and-mortar behemoth reinvent itself as a nimble digital pioneer and boosted the fashion category for a general merchandiser that sells everything from electronics and furniture to groceries and beauty products. The retailer, which by 2022 had over 1300 physical stores in 21 states across the country, benefited from her omnichannel expertise as it pushed forward with initiatives like its ‘super-app’ and the deployment of a popular virtual influencer called Lu do Magalu.
Machado helped shape the São Paulo-based retailer’s private label Vista Magalu, which sits alongside international brands like Adidas and Calvin Klein . Drawing on the experience and networks she gained over a decade working in the commercial divisions of Brazilian companies such as footwear group Arezzo & Co, fashion e-tailer Dafiti and high-street chain C&A, Machado gave Magazine Luiza greater fashion credibility as it began appealing to more trendsetters in the highly competitive mass market segment. Before entering the fashion industry, Machado worked at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company . She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and studied business administration at Fundação Getulio Vargas.
