INNOVATION

Pedro Arezes is currently the Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Minho. Full Professor of Human Factors Engineering, School of Engineering of the University of Minho. He is since 2016 the National Director of the Portuguese governmental program for science and Technology MIT Portugal.

He holds a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering at EEUM and have developed post-doctoral work at the Technical University of Delft (Netherlands), at MIT and Harvard University (both in the USA). At EEUM, he is a researcher in the ALGORITMI Research Center in the “Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM)” research line, where he leads the research group of “Ergonomics and Human Factors”.

He coordinated and collaborated on more than 50 R&D projects, holding more than 130 articles in indexed international journals and having been awarded in countries such as the United States, Spain, Brazil and Turkey. His activities include also the participation on several evaluation boards for research proposals and scholarships, as he is a member of the evaluation panel of the Portuguese Governmental Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and also of the Portuguese Agency for the evaluation of the Higher Education Institutions and Courses (A3ES). He has been a member of projects’ evaluation panels in several world agencies, including at the European Commission and at NASA.

He participated in 50+ scientific committees of international congresses, being a member of the scientific and organizing committees of some of the major scientific events in the domain of Human Factors, such as SHO (in Portugal), AHFE (in US), ORP (in Spain and South-America) and WOS (Europe). As an invited lecturer, he had presented more than 100 invited lectures/presentations, in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Indonesia, Italy, Peru, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, US and Sweden.

Bento Aires is a Civil Engineer, President of the Order of Engineers - North Region (OERN) and guest lecturer at Porto Business School (PBS), where he is also coordinator of Executive Programs.

Graduated and Master in Civil Engineering, with post-graduation in Project Management (PBS) and Built Tech (IE-Madrid), he works in project management and consulting. He was project director in engineering design and consulting companies and operations director in a Real Estate Investment and Fund Management Company.

Among other positions, he was coordinator of the Northern Regional College of Civil Engineering (2016-2022), coordinator of the Young Engineers Working Group of the OERN (2011), President of the Executive Committee of the Iberian Congress of Young Engineers (2012) and Chairman of the European Young Engineers Forum (2015).

Fernando Frias is currently a member of the Executive Board of Grupo ACA.

Civil Engineer and senior member of the Order of Engineers he has over 30 years' experience in the construction sector. Throughout his professional career he has held site management positions, Road and Infrastructure department direction, having also held senior management positions in national construction companies. 

Given the functions performed, he has a vast international experience related to the construction sector and to the management of large companies.

He is the Executive Director of the Innovation Ecosystem at NOVA SBE.

Expert, professor-of-practice and consultant in the areas of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Berkeley Innovation Forum and an external expert of the European Commission and the OECD for the HEInnovate initiative. Rui is currently a strategic advisor to Sogrape and sits at the Advisory Board of Grow by José de Mello and the Investment Committee of Beta Capital.

He was Executive Director at Porto Business School, where he also founded and directed the Center for Business Innovation and was director of the Postgraduate Program in Business Innovation. He was the founder and coordinator of Porto Design Factory, at Politécnico do Porto, where he managed more than 100 innovation projects with some of the largest companies in the world. In this context, he has integrated several innovation ecosystems, namely the Design Factory Global Network and the Stanford University Global Alliance for Redesign.

Rui was also part of the group of founders of the ScaleUp Porto initiative and works, as a mentor, entrepreneur and consultant, in several entrepreneurship ecosystems and with several startups.

Joana Resende is the Vice-Rector of University of Porto for Strategic Planning, Knowledge Valorization and Entrepreneurship, Full Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Management of U.Porto, President of U.Porto Science and Technology Park (UPTEC) and the local coordinator of the European Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH) at University of Porto. She is also a member of the General Council of INESC-TEC (Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science). From 2017-2020, she was a member of the Board of Directors of Cef-up (Center for Economics and Finance at University of Porto).

She holds a PhD in Economics and Management Science from Université Catholique de Louvain (joint degree with U.Porto). Her main research areas are industrial organization and digital economics. She is particularly interested in investigating business models and competitive dynamics allowed by new generation digital technologies allowing firms to engage in price and product personalization strategies. Her research has been published in leading international economic journals.

Over time, she has acted as consultant for both private and public entities, in the areas of competition policy, regulation and energy markets.

Hélder Pinto is currently CFO and Managing Director at ACA Group.

With a degree in Economics from the Faculty of Economics - University of Porto, he began his professional career at PwC, in auditing, where he had contact with a wide range of Portuguese and international companies.

With more than 10 years' experience in the Engineering and Construction sector, he has held several roles, from internal auditing, risk management, management control and strategic planning, which has allowed him to acquire a comprehensive and solid view of the sector.

In 2021, he completed an Executive MBA at Católica Porto Business School, reinforcing his knowledge and expertise of management.

Ricardo Costa was born in Braga and studied in Vila Nova de Famalicão, where he graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management in 2001, winning the prize for best internship project that year. Between 1998 and 2001, he was president of the Academic Association of Universidade Lusíada de Famalicão. 

In 2011, he completed his International MBA at Católica Porto Business School and assumed the position of CEO of the Bernardo da Costa Group. Today, he is a board member of several companies in the Group, in different areas of activity and with presence in Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Brazil and Cameroon. 

In 2016, he was nominated Business Ambassador of Braga and elected President of APSEI - Associação Portuguesa de Segurança.

As an active voice in promoting the economic, social and cultural development of Braga, Minho region and Portugal, he was elected president of AEMinho - Associação Empresarial do Minho.

In 2023, he was nominated Honorary Consul by the Government of Kosovo, the youngest country in Europe. He holds several advisory positions in the areas of higher education (IPCA - Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave and University of Minho), economy (CIP - Confederação Empresarial de Portugal), sport (ABC de Braga), social responsibility (Virar a Página - Cantina Solidária and Domus - Dignificar a Habitação) and publishing (MIT Technology Review Portugal and Lusofonia Digital).

With a strong presence on social media, as the Portuguese with the most influence on Linkedin, he has focused on defending humanized leadership and happiness at work, participating as a speaker at various conferences and events on this subject. Bernardo da Costa Group was the first company in Portugal to create a Happiness Department.

Luís has a PhD in Environmental Engineering, a Master's Degree in Food Technology and Quality, and a Master's Degree in Biotechnology. He coordinated the Innovation Capacity Building, Monitoring, Projects and Policies Unit, where he was Director of the Competence Center in Public Procurement for Innovation - Procure+i, with responsibility for the Circular Economy area.

He has almost twenty years' research experience at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Southern Jutland University in the scientific field of environmental biotechnology - composting and biogas.

As a consultant and project manager, he has implemented effluent treatment and waste recovery processes and environmental auditing projects in the agro-industry and livestock sector. As an international consultant, he was contracted on several UNIDO projects for the development of biogas in Latin America.

He has almost twenty years' research experience at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Southern Jutland University in the scientific field of environmental biotechnology - composting and biogas. As a consultant and project manager, he has implemented effluent treatment and waste recovery processes and environmental auditing projects in the agro-industry and livestock sector. As an international consultant, he was contracted on several UNIDO projects for the development of biogas in Latin America.

António holds a PhD in Economics from ISCTE-IUL, specialized in innovation policies and open innovation. 
Since July 2022, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, I.P.), and in 2021 he took on the role of Executive Coordinator of the "Impulso Jovens STEAM" and "Impulso Adultos" programs at Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior. 

He was a member of the Board of Directors of ANI – Agência Nacional de Inovação (2018-2021), in the area of capacity building for the National Innovation System. During this period, he was also a member of the Executive Committee of FITEC – Fundo de Inovação, Tecnologia e Economia Circular, and has also been a representative of the areas of Science and Technology in the Economic and Social Council since 2017. In 2019, he was the National Delegate of the Permanent Working Group on Open Science and Innovation (OSI) of ERAC (European Research and Innovation Area Committee).

Since 2001, he has collaborated with various members of the Government in the area of Innovation Policy, having been innovation project manager at UMIC – Unidade de Missão Inovação e Conhecimento, Presidência do Conselho de Ministros (2002-2005). He also has experience as a lecturer in Higher Education, and is the author of several articles in scientific publications and academic books, as well as opinion pieces in the area of innovation, technology and the digital world.

Fernando is currently Head of Growth and Acceleration at Startup Portugal.

During his academic studies, he ended up opening a stationery store on his college campus. Since then, he has gained a taste for business, launched several projects and became a member of the board of Acredita Portugal, being in charge of different initiatives such as one of the biggest entrepreneurship contests in the world (with more than 10,000 participants a year), the creating and operationalizing the Acceler@Tech Acceleration Program (a program that has attracted tourism-related entrepreneurs from all over the world to Portugal), launching of 2 business incubators, and raising more than 500k in direct financial investment for social projects, as well as much more capital converted into free goods and services for which we would traditionally have to use part of our budget.

He joined the Matosinhos Economy and Tourism City Council team, having been involved in several projects related to the economic promotion of the city and the development of initiatives through which the city supports its entrepreneurs.

Diogo is an Associate Partner at Deloitte, with over 16 years' experience in management consulting and technology. He supports global and local clients (Portuguese market) reinventing their business processes and customer relationships, using digital and technological transformations based on cutting-edge architectures and platforms.

His main expertise areas include digital transformation and technological architecture redesign, focused on the Consumer, Industrial Products & Construction industries. At Deloitte, Diogo is responsible for leading the Industrial Products & Construction sector in Portugal.

He also collaborates with the Deloitte Global CIO Program, contributing to research on technological trends, in order to offer CIOs and other technology executives insights and experiences to navigate the complex challenges they face in the present and future of business and technology.

Diogo has already delivered hundreds of projects to clients across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), from strategic technology plans to multi-year digital transformation programs.

Diogo Vieira da Silva is responsible for the Impact Centers at Porto Business School's Innovation X Hub. Throughout his career, Diogo has dedicated himself to the areas of innovation, business, sustainability and tourism initiatives, with a solid background in marketing and communication.

Committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, Diogo uses his experience to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. He brings a global perspective to local challenges, underlining the importance of tourism investments and policies in building a sustainable future.

His role at Porto Business School involves coordinating projects to promote environmental sustainability and ensure impactful inclusion, reflecting his dedication to balancing financial performance with impact. Diogo has contributed significantly to positioning Portugal as a leader in the tourism sector, highlighting the importance of innovative events in achieving a sustainable and equitable economy.

In addition, Diogo has a long history of involvement in promoting the human rights of LGBTI+ people, having founded three NGOs in this area.

In 2021, he was Curator of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Lisbon HUB and, in 2022, Curator of the Fidelidade 2022 Conference Cycle at the Culturgest Foundation on Diversity and Inclusion. Currently, Diogo continues his mission at Porto Business School, contributing to a more diverse and sustainable society.