LEADING CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS DURING MASSIVE CHALLENGES

Rui is a manager with seven years of experience on large international infrastructure projects whose path has been full of challenges and unquestionably unique experiences. During his career, he had several positions within the Project management of multimillion railway projects in Europe, Africa, and Asia, on large multinational organizations, such as Hitachi, and massive projects as the first metro line in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

He kicked off his career more than seven years ago on the former REFER while doing a master's thesis as part of a researcher program between REFER and IST, making his debut on the railway sector, where he has developed most of his career. After finishing his thesis, Rui continued his research in Railways Asset Management. Later on, Rui joined the maintenance contract team of Mota-Engil's Railways division, where he oversaw all preventive maintenance activities and implemented some of the practices, and know-how from his research, resulting in saving 20% of the annual costs with this type of Maintenance through optimization and efficiency.

By late 2015 Rui moved to Malawi to take part in the Nkaya-Limbe Project, a large international project to support the Nacala Corridor Maintenance Contract implementation. It was also a period of multiple challenges and obstacles, where unexpected difficulties were always present. Nevertheless, the project was delivered on time, and further projects were awarded as a result. In late 2017, Rui was looking forward to another international challenge, so he moved to Saigon, in Vietnam, to construct the first Metro line on the 13 million inhabitant megapolis of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). In the end, Rui managed an international team of almost 20 members from different nationalities, cultures, religions, and ages.

However, in November 2020, and already in the middle of the pandemic, Rui felt it was time to go back home to improve his skills. He decided to enrol on this EMBA and, in January 2021, took another tremendous challenge in the Project Management Consulting and Supervision Team for Lisbon's Metro expansion on the new Circle Line.