Paulo Azevedo

Chairman

Portugal

Paulo Azevedo is the Chairman of Sonae — a multinational company managing a diversified portfolio of businesses in retail, telecommunications, software, shopping centers and financial services — Sonae Indústria – a wood panel manufacturer — and Sonae Capital — an investment group active mainly in energy, industrial engineering and real estate. Paulo Azevedo was previously CEO of Sonae for 12 years and prior to that, CEO of Sonaecom and Optimus. His other business roles include the chairmanship of EFANOR and of BA Glass and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Allianz. He is also a member of the ERT – European Roundtable for Industry and chairs the Jobs, Skills & Impact Steering Group.

He is currently actively involved in the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation — dedicated to education — and Espaço-T — dedicated to fighting social exclusion — and has in the past been involved in several sectorial and general business associations, foundations and academia and was the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Porto University. More recently he has been appointed Chair of the Installation Committee of BIOPOLIS – an International Centre of Excellence in Environmental Biology, Ecosystem Research and AgroBiodiversity.

Besides his degree in Chemical Engineering from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Paulo Azevedo has an MBA from the Porto Business School.