Madalena Cascais Tomé, executive director of SIBS, was reappointed chairman of the Executive Committee, with two new members joining the committee, which is now made up of five. Madalena Cascais Tomé, executive director of SIBS, was reappointed chairman of the Executive Committee after the group's General Meeting elected the new governing bodies for the three-year period 2024-2026. Vítor Fernandes remains chairman of the company. With nearly 40 years of history, SIBS is a provider of financial services in the area of payments, with more than 150 million users on four continents. It is responsible for managing ATM networks across multiple channels and, among other things, processes more than 10 billion transactions a year. The new executive committee now has five members, as it has been strengthened by the addition of Teresa Mesquita, a company employee, and Rui Mendonça Lima, who is now part of SIBS. Helder Neves, current Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Ricardo Madeira, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), remain as executive directors. Madalena Cascais Tomé, who has a degree in Applied Mathematics, a course she completed in 1999 at ISEG - Instituto Superior de Gestão e Economia, has led SIBS since 2015. Recognized as one of the 25 leading women in technology in Europe, she was highlighted last year by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful in business, ranking 27th on the list. Strengthening the commitment to innovation and growth "It is with great satisfaction and a sense of commitment that I take on the responsibility of executive leadership of the SIBS Group for this new three-year period. I would like to thank the shareholders for their trust in me to continue an ambitious project of innovation, growth and commitment to SIBS' role as an engine of digitalization in the markets where it operates," the manager said in a statement. It also explains that the main objective of strengthening the Executive Committee is to ensure more focus on these three fundamental pillars for SIBS, with a view to accelerating its growth trajectory as a payment partner and European player of reference. The new members of the committee have more than 20 years' professional experience. Teresa Mesquita joined SIBS 20 years ago, where she held various positions, particularly in the areas of developing payment solutions and services. In this context, she has collaborated with various national and international forums, including being a member of the European Central Bank's Market Advisory Group for a Digital Euro. Rui Mendonça Lima, who has a 22-year professional career with experience in the financial sector, also comes from the fintech Finsolutia, where he led the internationalization project. Helena C. Peralta

Forbes analyzed the turnaround of three business groups before and after April 25. Find out what happened to the CUF Group, the Champalimaud Group and the Espírito Santo Group. It is accepted by several authors that the Portuguese economy was dominated in 1973, in the phase before the April 25 revolution, by seven large economic groups, referred to by many as the Magnificent Seven. These groups were mainly from the financial sector, such as Banco Espírito Santo and Comercial de Lisboa, the Banco Português do Atlântico group, Banco Borges e Irmão, Banco Nacional e Ultramarino and Banco Fonsecas e Burnay, but not only. On the industrial side, the two big giants at the time were the CUF Group, the largest, which controlled around 200 companies, and the Champalimaud Group, which mainly controlled basic sectors such as steel and cement. Of these, we will focus on just three, considered to be the dominant ones, in the hands of three powerful families, who regained some of their weight in the national economy after the revolution: the Mello's, descendants of Alfredo Silva, founder of CUF, the Espírito Santo's, descendants of Ricardo Ribeiro Espírito Santo Silva, and the Champalimaud's, descendants of Henrique Sommer and his maternal nephew, António Champalimaud. The Estado Novo was not only synonymous with a policy of repression, but also with a policy that allowed these large companies to grow and be built. "Some of these seven groups were linked by family ties. Large families that generated some degree of consanguinity, because they married a lot, creating the elite of elites. This is also a way of controlling the way in which company capital circulates and shareholder power is concentrated," explains Ricardo Noronha, a researcher with a PhD in History from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, whose dissertation was dedicated to the nationalization of the banking system during the Portuguese revolutionary process. He adds that they were also crossed by rivalries and disputes in various sectors and markets, and marked by state aid, monopolies and privileged concessions, even controlling the setting of prices. They were almost all family-based, and some were controlled by more than one family. Economic groups grow and modernize According to this historian, the Estado Novo was not only synonymous with a policy of repression, but also with a policy that allowed these large companies to grow and build. "These groups were to modernize rapidly as a result of their entry into EFTA, the effect of world economic growth and the growth of the Portuguese economy, which industrialized very quickly," says Ricardo Noronha. During this period of growth, the weight of the industrial product exceeded that of the agricultural product in GDP, but it also exceeded the weight of the working population. This industrialization was based on low wages, far below the European paradigm. These groups also had a privileged relationship with the state and were thus able to maintain very high profit rates, without taking many risks, without having to invest heavily in machinery, without having to face the pressure of competition and without having to face wage pressure. In fact, the European economic paradigm following the Second World War was one of strong state support for business sectors that were considered to be structuring the economy, with a heavy weight in job creation. "However, these national companies were relatively small on a global scale - only the CUF group was one of the largest 500 European companies," says Ricardo Noronha. Growth phase ends with the first oil shock Nuno Valério, an economics graduate and ISEG researcher specializing in economic history, recalls that these large groups were the result of a favorable economic environment. "Between the end of the Second World War and 1973 there was great growth in the world economy and also in the Portuguese economy, like never before and never again. It was a period of fantastic growth, and this obviously helped to create a good environment for business. This phase ended with the 1973 crisis, the first big oil shock," says the economist. This researcher then reports that the growth situation of these groups was disrupted by the international crisis in the fall of that year. "It's common to associate the problems of these groups with the revolution of April 25, nationalizations and the new powers, but in fact the problems came from behind, from a crisis in the international monetary system in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but which had its big shock in the autumn of 1973 with the oil crisis," the author recalls. In the fall before the revolution, everything changed: the reserves and remittances from emigrants ran out, and there were huge price rises, particularly for gasoline. It was from here that the cycle of economic growth broke down, the Portuguese balance of payments fell - the country's main problem in the following months - and when April 25 arrived, the economic situation was extremely negative, with everything that was happening at the time, aggravated by the colonial war, which left no one satisfied. "From an economic point of view, before the oil shock, Portugal was doing well, there was some prosperity, there was no unemployment - of course there was some emigration, but there was prosperity," says the expert. He adds that in the fall before the revolution, everything changed: the reserves and remittances from emigrants ran out, and there were huge price rises, particularly in gasoline. "This happens six months before the April 25 revolution, when everything is going wrong. When you look at the accounts and business of these groups, they've also started to go wrong," explains Nuno Valério. (Read the full article in the April/May issue of Forbes Portugal, on newsstands now) Helena C. Peralta

Madalena Cascais Tomé has been in charge of SIBS since 2015, when Vítor Bento [...]

Madalena Cascais Tomé has been in charge of SIBS since 2015, when Vítor Bento became chairman of the financial institution. Forbes Portugal magazine named her the 27th most powerful executive in business, just behind Patrícia Bensaude Fernandes.

Madalena Tomé was also recently recognized as one of the 25 leading women in technology in Europe. The Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology Report of Europe 2023 selects women who have made important contributions to fintech in Europe and around the world. This manager is the only Portuguese woman on this international list.

Madalena Tomé's career

Madalena Tomé has a degree in Applied Mathematics, which she completed in 1999 at ISEG - Instituto Superior de Gestão e Economia. Between 2001 and 2002, she also attended a course in Statistics and Marketing Research at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Between 2017 and 2019 she attended the International Directors Program at Insead, in Corporate Governance, and more recently, in 2021, she took a course in Leading Change and Organizational Renewal at Harvard Business School.

He is also a member of ISEG's board of directors and chairperson of Paytel and SIBS Romania, companies in the fintech universe.

She began her professional life in 1999 as a consultant at Anderson and then became a Senior Consultant at Deloitte and Touche, where she worked until 2003. She then joined McKinsey&Company, where she worked for six years. In 2009 she joined the Portugal Telecom group, where she held two director positions. In 2012 she accepted the position of Director of Commercial Operations at MEO, where she remained until 2015, when she joined SIBS. She is also a member of ISEG's board of directors and chairperson of Paytel and SIBS Romania, companies in the fintech universe.

Forbes Portugal magazine published its ranking in the June/July 2023 issue.

Helena C. Peralta

José Carlos Lourenço, former CEO of the ZAP Group, will take on the same executive role at the Media9Par Group, a publishing house which includes Forbes magazine (Portugal and Lusophone Africa), Jornal Económico and Semanário Novo. With extensive experience in the media and also in Lusophony, the manager was previously an Associate Partner in three companies: Baker Tilly (specialists in auditing and financial, operational and strategic consulting); Kept People (specialists in human capital, from Executive Search to Outsourcing, including consulting in these areas); and Lucena Consulting (specialist in corporate communications). From May 2018 to July 2021, José Carlos Lourenço was chairman of the ZAP Group, a provider of television and internet services for the Angolan and Mozambican markets. A diverse career The manager, who began his professional career in 1992 at Arthur Andersen, was also Chief Operations Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Media Group for around four years, from 2014 to 2018. He was also an executive director of Impresa, having worked in all the group's media. José Carlos Lourenço draws on his experience acquired throughout his career in a wide range of business areas (from auditing and consulting to distribution and logistics, from media to telecommunications), in companies of different markets (B2B and B2C) and sizes (large and medium-sized), operating in Europe and Africa. Knowledgeable about Lusophone markets Over the last 15 years, José Carlos Lourenço has held various C-Level positions in the Media and Telecommunications sectors, giving him a deep knowledge of the markets in Lusophone countries. In Portugal, he was responsible for the Impresa and Global Media Groups, and in Angola and Mozambique he led the ZAP Group. He has a degree in Economics from ISEG and several executive courses, namely at AESE, ISEG and INSEAD. Rest of the cast With this integration, José Carlos Lourenço will lead the executive function of the Board of Directors as CEO, with the current executive directors Raúl Bragança Neto and Cristiana de Nóbrega on his team. In the Group's new Corporate Governance solution, Luís Figueiredo Trindade, until now the Group's CEO, will take on the role of Chairman of Media N9ve. "This change reinforces the Group's commitment to becoming a leading player in Portuguese-speaking countries," says NGunu Tiny, Founder and CEO of Emerald Group. "This change reinforces the Group's commitment to becoming a leading player in Lusophony, further enhancing its ability to create synergies within this space," says NGunu Tiny, Founder and CEO of Emerald Group. For Luís Figueiredo Trindade, Megafin Atlantic's shareholder, "this is a new stage in the Group's consolidation process, which continues to focus on sustainable growth while preserving the project's founding values". The new CEO, José Carlos Lourenço, stresses that "it is with great enthusiasm that I embrace this opportunity to cross the Lusophone market with the media industry, and in relation to both I can make a useful contribution, resulting from my personal and professional experience over the last 15 years". These changes take effect on March 27. Media9 Participações, S.A. (Media9Par), the media holding company owned by Emerald Group (90%) and Megafin Atlantic (10%). Nilza Rodrigues