Ivo Gomes

Ivo Ferreira Gomes is Mayor of Sobral, small, relatively poor municipality in the state of Ceará in Northeast Brazil since 2017. Prior to serving as mayor, he was the Secretary of Education and oversaw reforms that resulted in impressive improvements in learning outcomes in the area. In less than 8 years, Sobral went up in the ranking of municipalities from 1,390 to first. Among the reforms, the process of selecting school principals on meritocratic criteria; selection process of pedagogical coordinators of schools and the institution of a fund that would guarantee the monthly transfer of resources to be managed by the school, with the support of the school council and under the leadership of the principal. Ivo holds a law degree from the Federal University of Ceará, specialization in tax law from the University of Fortaleza and a master's degree from Harvard University. He had been a career attorney in the city of Fortaleza since 1993.