Carlos Moedas
Carlos Moedas
Carlos Moedas was born in Beja, Portugal, and graduated as a civil engineer from Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon) in 1993. He was one of the first Erasmus Students in Portugal and attended the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris (1993). In 1998 he graduated with a Master in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, USA (1998/2000). He started his career as a civil engineer working for the French conglomerate Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux in France, where he lived for 5 years. After his graduation from Harvard he worked for Goldman Sachs in their Investment Banking division in London. In 2004 he returned to Portugal and became head of Aguirre Newman, where he was also a member of the executive board in Spain. In 2008 he went on to create his own investment management company. In 2011 he headed the Social Democrat Party’s (PSD) economic team and participated on the negotiations for Portugal’s 2011 Public Budget. That same year he was elected a Member of Parliament by the Beja constituency and appointed under-Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of the XIX Constitutional Government of Portugal where he was tasked with coordination of monitoring the adjustment programme structural reforms. In 2014 he was nominated by the Portuguese Prime-Minister to be the the European Commissioner. He is the Commissioner responsible for Research, Science and Innovation, one of the largest science and innovation projects on the planet worth 77 billion euros. He designed the proposal for the future Horizon Europe programme worth 100 billion euros, set to be launched in 2021. He is the 5th Portuguese national to hold this position since Portugal became a EU Member State in 1986. Commissioner Moedas co-authored a series of publications in the field of science and innovation. Among these articles, one stands out: ‘Open Innovation: Research, Practices and Policies’published in the California Management Review, co-signed by Henry Chesbrough who is known for coining the term ‘Open Innovation’. In 2014, the Commissioner became the youngest member to be elected to the Portuguese Academy of Engineering. He is an honorary fellow from the African Academy of Sciences. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Laws by the University of Cork in Ireland and in 2018 an Honorary Doctorate in Management from the ESCP Europe (École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris). In 2019 received the Gold Medal of the Portuguese Order of Engineering.
