The Feffer business story begins with Leon Feffer, a Jewish immigrant who founded Suzano Papel e Celulose in 1924 and turned it into a significant Brazilian paper producer over the 20th century.[page:56] His son, Max Feffer, later became president of Suzano and is credited with pioneering the use of eucalyptus pulp in paper manufacturing and vertically integrating the company, which helped make Suzano the world’s second-largest producer of eucalyptus pulp.[page:56]

This father–son tandem laid both the industrial and governance foundations of the family empire: Leon as founder, Max as the technologist and integrator who bet on eucalyptus and scale.[page:56] By the time the business passed to the third generation, Suzano had already grown into a diversified pulp-and-paper group with a clear Feffer stamp on its technology and strategy.

David is the eldest of four brothers: David, Daniel, Jorge and Ruben, all sons of Max and Betty Vaidergorn Feffer.[page:56] Public profiles emphasise that his father was president of Suzano and that the company remains a family-built and family-led group, implying that the siblings form a controlling block behind the listed companies.[page:56]

David prepared for leadership with business courses at Columbia University, the Aspen Institute and IMD, and earned degrees in law and business administration from Mackenzie Presbyterian University and Fundação Getúlio Vargas.[page:56] He became chairman and president of Grupo Suzano in 2003, representing the Feffer clan as the public face of the business while his brothers hold various roles in governance and family institutions.[page:56]

Grupo Suzano today is one of Brazil’s largest private business groups, with Suzano Papel e Celulose (now Suzano S.A.) as its flagship, listed on the B3 stock exchange in São Paulo.[page:56] In January 2019, Suzano acquired rival Fibria Celulose for 7.5 billion U.S. dollars, creating Brazil’s largest paper and pulp producer, consolidating the Feffer family’s position at the top of the global eucalyptus pulp market.[page:56]

Beyond pulp and paper, the group participates in insurance sales, risk management and the development of software and technology products, diversifying the family’s exposure beyond commodity cycles.[page:56] Under David’s stewardship, Suzano has been positioned as both an industrial powerhouse and a “forestry tech” play, even as its core remains planted in eucalyptus plantations and mills.

According to Forbes’ 2021 World’s Billionaires list, David Feffer’s net worth stood at approximately 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, anchored in his stake in Suzano.[page:56] He is categorised as a Brazilian billionaire, a business executive and a member of one of the country’s richest families, with Ukrainian‑Jewish roots noted in his biographical categories.[page:56]

While exact shareholdings are not detailed in the biographical stub, the Forbes profile and Brazilian case studies on corporate governance identify Suzano as a textbook example of a family-controlled yet publicly listed company.[page:56] In that structure, the Feffer name carries more weight in boardrooms and long-term strategic calls than its raw ownership percentage might suggest.

David is married to Ana Feffer, and the couple has four children.[page:56] Their daughter Adriana married André Skaf in 2008, linking the Feffer clan to the family of Brazilian politician Paulo Skaf, a powerful figure in São Paulo’s business–political ecosystem as former head of the industry federation FIESP.[page:56]

Another daughter, Marina Feffer, married Brazilian restaurateur Daniel Oelsner, tying the pulp dynasty into São Paulo’s high-end hospitality and lifestyle scene.[page:56] Through these marriages, the Feffers extend their reach into political, social and cultural networks that complement their industrial base.

Marina Feffer, one of David’s daughters, co-founded the Generation Pledge, a group of wealthy heirs who commit to donating at least 10% of their inheritance to charity.[page:56] In a 2019 Valor Econômico profile, she is described as “a member of one of the richest families in the country” openly challenging her peers to treat inherited wealth as a tool for social change.[page:56]

This initiative signals that at least part of the Feffer fourth generation intends to frame its role less as passive shareholders and more as activist philanthropists.[page:56] For a dynasty built on monoculture plantations, the optics of heirs pledging slices of future estates help rebalance a narrative often dominated by environmental and social critiques of large-scale forestry.

Beyond corporate roles, David chairs several cultural and social institutions: he is president of the philanthropic foundation Arymax, president of the board of the Alef School (a Jewish educational institution) and vice-president of the board of the Ecofuturo Institute.[page:56] Ecofuturo’s publications highlight his “entrepreneurial vision” in linking environmental education with corporate forestry, blending Suzano’s core business with social projects.[page:56]

He also serves on advisory and consulting councils such as LafargeHolcim’s International Consulting Council and the consultative council of the Brazilian Tree Industry, anchoring Feffer influence in both cross-border cement and domestic forestry lobbies.[page:56] These roles give the family a voice not only over their own plantations but also in the rule‑setting spaces that shape entire sectors.

Wikipedia categorises David as a Brazilian Jew and a Brazilian of Ukrainian‑Jewish descent, placing the Feffer story within the broader arc of Jewish immigrant families who became industrial pillars in São Paulo.[page:56] That identity is also reflected in his roles at Alef School and Arymax, which focus on education and Jewish community philanthropy.[page:56]

As chairman of Suzano and an active figure in corporate‑governance debates, David embodies the transformation of the Feffers from immigrant papermakers into a core node of Brazil’s business establishment.[page:56] Between eucalyptus plantations, billion‑dollar mill mergers, philanthropic foundations and children marrying into political dynasties, the family illustrates how, in modern Brazil, industrial pulp can quietly become a kind of soft power, printed not just on paper but on institutions and surnames.