I am 66, was born in Portugal and have a lovely family. My 6th grandchild is arriving soon. Most of them have foreign citizenship because their parents immigrated to find better jobs abroad.

 I am an economist by training and I have studied in Portugal and France.

My first job was as an economist at the IMF, after what I served as Director General of Treasury at the Ministry of Finance in Portugal. Subsequently, I had a career in banking.

In 2005- 2009 I served as Minister of Economy in Portugal. I am by  no ways a politician, however I felt I had the obligation to give back to the country where I was born.

I believe that I created a legacy by contributing  to transform Portugal into a world leader in renewable energies and to the education of hundreds of extremely talented students from all over the world. I am humbled by their contribution to the book with personal testimonies.

As a result of traveling extensively to China in teaching assignments, I had the opportunity to witness the awesome transformation that is taking place in the country.

I am positive by nature and always tried to convey to my audiences that we together have the capacity to solve problems that seem to have no solution beforehand.

However, there is a side of me that is not known ( or at least, not well known) by my friends all over the world, by my students and their families: during the last 9 years I have been living in confinement.

In my forthcoming book Confined I show the 2 sides of the same coin.

On one hand, how it was possible to transform a small country into a world leader in renewable energies, what I learned from traveling extensively to several countries that generously have hosted me and how my students changed my vision of the world.

On the other hand, what I mean by living in confinement.

I am grateful to all the friends that accepted to contribute with a personal testimony to the book. A small sample is reproduced in this website.