Otavio, one of the hardest working, most dedicated professionals I have had the privilge to meet and work with in my life so far.

My name is Otavio Ladeira and I work at the Brazilian National Treasury since 1994. Among other responsibilities, I used to meet investors, analysts and rating agencies to better clarify them about Brazilian economic and fiscal issues. I also used to visit countries as IMF and World Bank consultant for public debt management. Stephen taught me English for two years, from 2013 to 2014. My spoken and written English skills were limited and I needed to enhance my capacity to better perform my daily work. Stephen was especially helpful in guaranteeing my engagement during the classes, bringing new interesting issues to be discussed and mixing efficiently new vocabulary and grammar reviews. He was also very concerned in improving my pronunciation. His pedagogy, including resources to extend learning beyond traditional tools, was very efficient in keeping my attention during classes. Between weekly classes, he always found time to correct my homework, sent by email. By doing that, doubts were always clarified in the following class, speeding the learning process. In short, taking classes with Stephen were fundamental for my professional growth, and I feel lucky to have had him as a teacher.