Born in Porto (1953). Degree in Economics (FEP-UP, 1970/75), PhD in Economics and International Finance (U. Paris I, 1984) and International Economic Relations (UP, 1986), Holder of the Aggregate Degree in Economics (ISEG-UTL, 1999). Lecturer and Professor at FEP, his most constant activity (1975/2010) throughout almost five decades of his professional career. He was, among other roles, Associate Researcher at CEPII (Paris, 1981/83), Director and Board member at the BPA Group (1984/96), Secretary of State for Competitiveness and Internationalization (XIII Constitutional Government-António Guterres, 1996/ 97), President of the Fund for the Internationalization of Portuguese Companies (FIEP, 1998/2003), member of corporate bodies in several companies and institutions (2004/2016) and President of CCDRN - the North Regional Coordination and Development Commission (2016/2020). He was a Professor at several Higher Education Institutions (Universidade Católica Portuguesa; ISEE and Porto Business School; IESF; Universidade Portucalense) and actively collaborated, as an expert and consultant in the regional and European fields and internationalization and international management, with the Ministry of Finance (1986/87) and the State Secretariat for Foreign Trade (1991), the EU Economic and Social Committee (1990/91), the AEP and other business associations (from 1989 to the present), the ICEP (2000/02) and the Innovation Agency (2007/11) and numerous companies and business groups; He was also a member, representing Portugal, of the Cultural Affairs Committee of the European Commission (2008/12). He is currently President of the General Council of the University of Porto, as well as Vice-President of the Fundação Casa da Música and member of the Advisory Council of the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto and Católica Porto Business School. He is the author or co-author of several national and international works, papers, studies and reports and of various regular collaborations in the media and blogosphere. Awarded by the President of the Portuguese Republic with the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (2006).

Graduated in Economics from the University of Porto (1972). He was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto from 1975 until December 2009, when he retired, having been responsible for teaching and conducting courses at the level of Bachelors and Masters in Economics and Management, focusing on the areas of economic development, globalisation, innovation and macroeconomics. He has been a consultant in Portugal since 1980, namely for the Northern Region Coordination Commission, advising the Presidency (1980-1992), and for several municipalities, in the field of cross-border and inter-regional cooperation, on the evaluation the dynamics of spatial evolution in the Northern Region and local planning and development. As an international consultant, he has collaborated in international studies for the Commission of the European Communities, namely in the field of studies of territorial perspective, inter-regional and cross-border cooperation and the evaluation of the European employment strategy. He joined the Board of Directors of Quaternaire Portugal in 1994, having been, between March 1999 and May 2018, the Chair of the Board of Directors. Since 8 May 2018, he took over the company's Strategy and Innovation Department. At Quaternaire Portugal, he has technically and scientifically coordinated studies for the evaluation of public programmes and policies (with emphasis on the interventions of the European Structural and Investment Funds in Portugal), sectoral and territorial, works in the area of territorial development and strategic planning, of the innovation economy and employment and training policies. He has a large number of works published in the area of regional development and strategic planning, most recently in research in collective projects for the International Labour Organization and the European Commission, in collaboration with Maria Pilar González and Luís Delfim Santos (Faculty of Engineering at University of Porto) and Hugo Figueiredo (University of Aveiro and CIPES - Research Centre for Higher Education Policies), in the domains of the effects of the crisis and austerity policies in the European social model, in the evolution of the middle classes and in the world of labour and industrial relations in general, already published jointly by the International Labour Organization and the English publisher Edward Elgar, under the coordination of Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead. He is co-author of the blog "Interesse Privado, Acção Pública".