Profile

Engineer of the arts

written by: Sérgio Bourroul
photo by: Roberto Rosa

“In literature, I expand my liberty.” That is how writer, communicator, filmmaker and electrical engineer Marcos Rabello defines his relationship with writing. The author of O Romance do Contista (The Storyteller’s Novel), published in Brazil in 2003, in the introduction he admits that he found motivation to visit the past and write his debut novel in the isolation of the jobsites. And he goes even further: “Today I’m lending my writer’s creativity to the job.”

Marcos Rabello joined Odebrecht 16 years ago, at the invitation of Carlos Hupsel, now the officer Responsible for Opportunity Development and Representation Support at Odebrecht S.A. He has worked in the Communication and Institutional Relations and Energy areas of the company. He helped develop the winning bids for the Cana Brava, Goiás, and São Salvador, Tocantins, hydroelectric plant projects in Brazil before going to Angola, where he has been working for the last six years. There, he is responsible for three programs: Revitalizing Roads in Luanda, Urban Development (Luanda Sul) and Education for Work and Development.

After spending his teenage years playing soccer in the streets and being influenced by radio programs in Aracaju, Sergipe, in northeastern Brazil, he attended the vanguard Colégio de Aplicação school in Salvador, Bahia. Later, at the Federal University at Bahia (UFBA), he got deeply involved in cultural projects. Influenced by legendary Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha, he wrote, produced and directed two short films in Super-8. After graduating from college, he joined COELBA, Bahia’s regional power distribution company, and presided over the Municipal Social Security Institute in Salvador, receiving the Thomé de Souza medal for his work in public administration. He also ran for vice mayor in the capital of Bahia.

Married and the father of three, Rabello is working on another novel. “My life has been guided by constant change, and I like to interweave stories that never end.” His writing certainly has a strong autobiographical influence.