Hélène Farnaud-Defromont currently serves as Ambassador of France to Portugal, following her position as Ambassador of France to Belgium. Before her ambassadorial roles, she was the Director General of Administration and Modernization, as well as Senior Defense and Security Officer within the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, where she oversaw human resources, financial affairs, information systems, diplomatic security, real estate, and logistics. Her previous positions include serving as Director of the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE), where she supervised a global network of 500 schools. She was also Chief of Staff to the Minister for Development and held several strategic roles within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ directorates for globalization, international cooperation, and political and security affairs. Abroad, she served as Cultural Advisor at the French Embassy in Jordan and as Deputy Director of the European Organization of Public Law in Athens.

Simon Ursell is an entrepreneur and business coach who founded his first company at 24 and has since worked across organisations of every size. He is Co-Founder and Chair of Tyler Grange, an environmental consultancy and certified B-Corp, which he led for 13 years, growing it from start-up to a market leader with more than 100 people across seven UK offices. Alongside his role at Tyler Grange, Simon is also a business coach providing a range of SMEs and charities. He works closely with founders and leadership teams, helping them scale, build resilient teams, grow in confidence, and make a positive impact. A strong believer that progress comes from change, Simon embraces risk and challenges convention. He pioneered the four-day working week at Tyler Grange and now helps other organisations do the same.

Tiago Pereira work at Banco de Portugal since 2011, in Central de Balanços of the Statistics Department. During this period, he has contributed to the preparation of studies on non-financial corporations in Portugal and, in recent years, has focused more on the analysis of company-reported data. He has also supervised several professional internships and participated in outreach activities with universities. He is the co-author of papers presented at national and international conferences on quality control procedures and the Bank of Portugal’s databases. Holding a bachelor’s and a PhD in Economics, as well as a master’s degree in Finance, he is currently also an Invited Assistant Professor at the FEP - School of Economics and Management of the University of Porto and has published in international scientific journals.

Joaquim Magalhães da Cunha, 65, a graduate computer engineer from University of Minho, is the CEO of Health Cluster Portugal (www.healthportugal.com), a hub for competitiveness in health whose objective is the promotion and implementation of initiatives and activities leading to the consolidation of a national cluster for competitiveness, innovation and technology with an international outlook, and to promote and foster cooperation between companies, organizations, universities and public entities with a market view in the economic areas related to health and to the improvement of health care. A significant part of his professional career was dedicated to CASO - Consultores Associados de Organizações e Informática, Lda (www.caso.pt), a company that he founded in 1983. He was also founder of MinhoDigital SA, a regional cluster experience in the ICT sector, and Nanologic the first Portuguese company fully dedicated to the development and production of parts and tools for micro and nano technologies. From 2004 to 2006 he integrated the board of Pronefro – Produtos Nefrológicos, SA, a medical device company working on the haemodialysis sector.

Sofia Koehler is Vice President of Colquímica Adhesives, a multinational company with operations in Portugal, Poland, and the United States. With a career marked by leadership in areas such as Information Technology, Digital Transformation, Human Resources, Sales, and Marketing, Sofia has played a strategic role in the company’s international expansion. She currently also serves as President of the North American subsidiary, based in Charlotte. Sofia regurlarly participates in seminars on internationalization and sustainability, where she shares practical experiences and global growth strategies.

I am an Anthropologist specialist in time. I have three professional degrees: Licentiate, Professor and Doctor. My vocation is to research and apply an intercultural methodology to advise people and organizations about time management, cultural change and the balance between well-being and productivity. My experience is based on 20 years of fieldwork with different social groups: indigenous people, immigrants, farmers, entrepreneurships, politicians, decision-makers, stakeholders. I have published 6 books and more than 20 scientific papers. I´ 'm a TEDx speaker. My last book is called El Tiempo No Es Dinero (Time is not money).

Eduardo Ramos is Executive Board Member of Brisa Group, with the roles of Chief Development Officer (CDO), CEO of Via Verde, Innovation Officer, as well as Non-Executive Director of Brisa Concessão Rodoviária, A-to-Be and Controlauto. Within Via Verde Ecosystem, Eduardo is the Chairman of Via Verde Pay. Started its career at EY Consulting in 1998, having joined Brisa in 2004. During his more than two decades with Brisa Group, Eduardo developed several assignments at the Corporate Center and at Business Units in Portugal, Brazil, The Netherlands, USA, India, Spain and France. He holds a degree in Economics from Universidade de Lisboa/ISEG and an MBA from Nova SBE/Católica/MIT (Lisbon MBA), with Executive Courses by HBS, MIT, INSEAD, Oxford University and Singularity University. Eduardo is also an invited professor in Bachelors, Masters and Executive Education programs (namely in UCP and Nova SBE) on business strategy, internationalization and innovation, as well as an Angel/Venture Capital investor. For more info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardocostaramos/

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Porto, also teaching, in collaboration, at Porto Business School. Executive Director of the Executive Monitoring Committee of the IPCG Corporate Governance Code.

Researcher and specialist in public policy and youth, with experience in social-development and academic projects.