[5][6] In the early 1960s, he was a prominent member of the socio-political movement Ação Popular which opposed the conservative political system that existed at the time.

[7] Serra interrupted his studies in engineering at age 22 and left the country in 1964, after the coup that established the military government in Brazil.

In the United States José Serra was awarded a Masters and Ph.D. in economics at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)[9] and later spent 2 years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

On returning to Brazil after the political amnesty in 1978, Serra lectured in economics at the University of Campinas, did research for Cebrap, and wrote for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

His first bid for the mayorship of the City of São Paulo came in 1988 in an election won for the Worker's Party (PT) by Luiza Erundina.

Pitta was the designated successor of mayor Paulo Maluf, who headed the right-wing populist Progressive Party (PP).

Serra sought nomination as the PSDB candidate for president in the 2006 elections, but on March 14, 2006, decided to run instead for governor of the state of São Paulo.

He secretly promised to sell the rights to Brazil's newest petroleum discoveries in the pre-salt layer to those companies, reversing the model of da Silva.

[18] WikiLeaks released several documents showing that Serra promised protection to Chevron[19] in order to transfer control from Petrobras in case of election victory.

In February 2012, Serra announced he would run for mayor of São Paulo, which would have resulted in his second non-consecutive term, though he had left the first one before it ended.