Our team Board Members

Margriet Leemhuis

Honorary Chairman

Her Excellency Ms Margriet Leemhuis was appointed Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Portugal in August 2022 and fulfils the position of Honorary Chair of the Dutch Portuguese Chamber of Commerce.

Margriet Leemhuis has had an impressive carreer and has had various positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad. She was Cultural Attaché in Pretoria, Deputy Ambassador in Slovakia and the UK, and Ambassador to Mexico and Belize. She has many years of experience working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became Ambassador to Portugal as from August 2022. In her role as Honorary Chair of the Chamber she is aiming to be supportive and to provide the Chamber with useful ideas.

 

Nuno Pinto de Magalhães

Chairman

Nuno was elected as Chairman of Sociedade Central de Cervejas e Bebidas (SCC) in July 2021. He previously served as the Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of Central de Cervejas, which is part of the Heineken group. In addition Nuno is President of Auto Regulação Publicitaria (ARP) an organization made up of Advertisers, Media and Advertising and Space Purchasing Agencies.

Among other positions, Nuno is also President from Auto Regulação Publicitária (Portuguese self-regulatory organization for advertising) and APIAM (Portuguese Industrial Association for Natural Mineral and Spring Waters). 

Nuno joined the Board in 2015 and was elected Chairman on 13.12.2017. Nuno is the first Chairman of Portuguese nationality in the history of the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber was founded in 1986.

Leendert Verschoor

Treasurer

Leendert Verschoor is a partner in PwC Portugal and has a longstanding experience advising companies and individuals on taxation matters. He has a degree in Business Economics from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and a degree in Tax Law from Leiden University.

Specialised in taxation of multinational enterprises and transfer pricing and is responsible for the human resources services team, including individual income tax and social security services to, among others, expatriates, privately owned (familiy) business and Ultra High Net Worth Individuals.

Michiel Bos

Board Member

Michiel is of Dutch origin but was born and raised for a large part in Portugal. Michiel has a large experience in Industry and also worked as senior manager at KPMG.

From 2005-2009 Michiel was Chairman of the Chamber and since then remained on as a very supportive Board Member.

Michiel also studied in the Netherlands and took up business studies at West London and Hammersmith College. Moreover, he took a degree in business administration at ESADE/Wharton. Michiel has worked for different industries, varying from printing, packaging and textiles. 

After working in Barcelona for 6 years Michiel has returned to Portugal and has setup his own company Maxitrade & Consultorina. He works mainly in Iberia and in the Portuguese speaking African countries.

Geesje Mosies

Board Member

Owner of Hoooked, a textile recycle and production firm in Portugal, Geesje Mosies is one of the newest Board Member of the Chamber. Geesje Mosies has a vast experience in Project Management, having worked in Logica, an IT focused enterprise, and in the Finance Department in the Netherlands.

 

Geesje Mosies Public Administration background and her vast experience in Project Management, having worked in Logica, an IT focused enterprise, and in the Finance Department in the Netherlands, Owner of Hoooked, a textile recycle and production firm in Portugal. 

Gustavo Barreto

Board Member

Gustavo Barreto assumed the position of Chief Commercial Officer of Ageas Portugal in 2021, while joining the executive committee of the companies that make up the Ageas Portugal Group: Ageas Portugal Holdings, Ageas Seguros, Ageas Vida, Ocidental Seguros and Médis.

 

The former Director of Distribution and Marketing at Ageas Seguros has already held different roles over his 29-year career, from Strategy and Innovation, Business Intelligence and Marketing and Distribution, in various sales channels (Mediators, Brokers, Banking, Partnerships, Affinities) , and in several brands (Império Bonança, Médis, Ocidental and Ageas Seguros).

He also assumed roles internationally, as Business Analyst at Eureko, bv in the Netherlands, and between 2012 and 2014, as Regional Director of Marketing and Offer, at Ageas Continental Europe, in Belgium.

Gustavo Barreto has a degree in Business Management from Universidade Católica Portuguesa, in Lisbon, complemented by the Advanced Management Program, from Insead, in Fontainebleau.

Gustavo was nominated as Board Member of the Chamber in the General Assembly in March 2023.

Luís Newton

Board Member

Luis Newton is President of Estrela Borough since 2013, being responsible for quality of life improvement to all constituents. Luis is a passionate leader, inspiring his team and its constituents that epublic sector should be solution based instead of problem basd. He also believes that public governance models can drive innovation.

 

Luis Newton is President of Estrela Borough since 2013, being responsible for quality of life improvement to all constituents. Digital Transformation and Change Management have been key focus areas. He is also involved in lobbying for a digital and citizen engaged government.

Luis is a passionate leader, inspiring his team and its constituents that public sector should be solution based instead of problem based. He also believes that public governance models can drive innovation.

Before joining Estrela Borough, he was advisor for the Secretary of State of Culture in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, he embraced a new role before becoming a candidate for Estrela: PSD Parliamentary Group Advisor.

Recently, he was chosen as Portugal’s CIO of the Year 2015 - Public Sector.

Maarten Drenth

Board Member

In november 2018, Maarten moved to Portugal and became the Cluster General Manager at InterContinental Hotels Group for the hotels in Lisbon and Estoril. With Dutch nationality and a Bachelor´s degree of the Hotelschool The Hague in the Netherlands, Maarten began his career in the IHG group more than 30 years ago. In 2021 Maarten was promoted to Area General Manager IHG Portugal.

He has previously lead several hotels of the IHG brand, such as InterContinental Mark Hopkins in San Francisco (USA), InterContinental Buenos Aires (Argentina), Crowne Plaza Bratislava (Slovakia) and InterContinental São Paulo (Brazil) gaining a wide international experience in three continents.
He joined the board of the Chamber in May 2020.

Alexander Griekspoor

Board Member

Innovate and create your own career

Alexander Griekspoor is a software developer in Lisbon, Portugal, from where he writes innovative software for scientists. After a PhD in Cell Biology he switched fields and joined the European Bioinformatics institute as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow. By then, however, Alexander was already better known as "Mek" from the duo "Mekentosj". Together with his friend Tom "Tosj" Groothuis he developed a number of scientific Mac applications, two of which won Apple Design Awards for best Best Student and Best scientific Mac OS X application, respectively.

What started in his spare time as hobby became his passion and turned into a young and exciting software company with 7 people on 4 continents. They created Papers, which won their third Apple Design Award. In 2012 his company was acquired by Springer Science+Business media where he continues to head the Papers unit. Alexander strongly believes the economic future of both Portugal and The Netherlands will rely on talented young people deciding to take their destiny in their own hands by starting small new companies that grow out to be tomorrow’s main brands.

Erik Lassche

Board Member

As from january 2020 Erik Lassche is the CEO of Fullsix Portugal, managing the team of 140 people from the digital agency. In addition, Erik is lecturer and co-ordinator of the Executive Education programme at NOVA SBE Doing Digital.

Erik started his career in the marketing area at Unilever, then moved to Centralcer, where he was Brand manager for the Sagres brand, subsequently joining the Fullsix group in 2006 where he was, until now, responsible for the Platforms area.

Erik joined the Board in May 2020.

Raul Neto

Board Member

Raul started in Randstad in 2017 as a Chief Financial Officer, but since April 2023 has become the CEO – Chief Executive Officer.   Developed is career in Finance and Global Management areas, in several markets (FMCG, Healthcare, Electronic Security, Human Resources).

Additional, Raul as experience in Sales, IT and Supply Chain areas. He counts with solid experience in managing complex and sophisticated projects, including: business turnaround, restructuring organizations, change management, processes re-engineering, efficiency and profitability improvement programs, due-diligence's, cluster's setup, divestitures, acquisitions integration processes, start-ups consolidation and ERP's implementation.

Rita Lufinha Borges

Board Member

Rita has had a longstanding experience as a lawyer in different law firms focusing on areas such as finance and real estate law (tourism and investment projects). She is a Partner at law firm Miranda & Associados, which is present in 17 countries. 

Rita graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University and was admitted to the Bar in 1997. At present Rita focuses on telecommunications law and real estate for Miranda Law firm, one of the most recognized firms operating in PAOLP countries. Rita joined the Board in december 2015. 

David Carvalho Martins

Liaison Officer

Don’t React, Act

David Carvalho Martins is a lawyer with offices in Lisbon and in The Algarve, Loulé, with more than 15 years of experience, chiefly focused on labour law. He is also guest lecturer at the University of Lisbon – Faculty of Law and at the Universidade Europeia and is a PhD candidate. 

David has several publications in Portugal and abroad, is an invited speaker at conferences and seminars, promoted by national and foreign organizations and manages a Blog named “Direito Criativo” (https://direitocriativo.com) to disclose information about labour law.


He is member of the Portuguese BAR association, founding member and President of AJJ – Young Labour Lawyers Association and a member of the board of APODIT (Associação Portuguesa de Direito do Trabalho), but also member of AEDTSS (Asociación Española de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social), of ILERA (International Labour and Employment Relations Association), of EELA (European Employment Lawyers Association) and of CIELO Laboral.

David is a member of the Dutch Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and since January 2021 liaison offer of the Chamber for The Algarve region together with Joana Neto Mestre from the law firm MATLAW.

Joana Neto Mestre

Liaison Officer

Think Big, Act Small

Joana Neto Mestre is a Portuguese Lawyer, graduated in Law and Post-graduated in Civil and Commercial Litigation, Arbitration, Intellectual Property, Negotiation and Accounting for law practitioners by the University of Lisbon.

She is a Member of the Portuguese BAR Association and her practice is focused on Contractual and Commercial Law, Asset Taxation, Litigation and Arbitration in the field of real estate investment.


Joana is managing partner of MATLAW - a law firm focused on legal advisory for real estate investment projects with offices in Lisbon and in The Algarve, and member of the Dutch Portuguese Chamber of Commerce.


Since January 2021 Joana is liaison officer of the Chamber for The Algarve region together with David Carvalho Martins from DCM Lawyers.

Thomas A. Hall de Beuvink

Liaison Officer

Thomas A. Hall de Beuvink, founder of BC | Beuvink Consulting is a Dutch entrepreneur, who studied law and industrial engineering in Germany and settled down in Portugal in 2012. As from 15th of June 2021Thomas acts as Liaison officer of the Chamber of Commerce for special projects. Thomas was recently re-elected Vice-President of the Industry Section of the Geographical Society of Lisbon, being the first Dutch in a leading position of this important and historical institution of Portugal, founded 1875.

Thomas is the founder and CEO of BC | BEUVINK CONSULTING: an independent consultancy and expert office for family office management, real estate solutions and valuation and economic diplomacy, including project development, art & asset management, event organization and tourism; the discrete partner for representation & special envoy services, fundraising and charity support; a door-opener specialized in clients of German, Dutch, English and Portuguese language, based in Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Paul van Rooij

Liaison officer - Region North

Paul is our liaison officer for the Northern Region of Portugal since April 2022. With his longstanding experience in the industry, the Chamber is very pleased to count on Paul as our representative in the region where most of the Portuguese industry is based.

Paul has worked as a top executive leader in several automotive suppliers for almost 40 years in Brazil, Portugal, Germany, and Austria. Today Paul has focused his professional activities as a freelancer consultant and advisor for C-Level executives and boards, interim executive mandates and as well liaison and sourcing management.   With a Brazilian, Dutch and German multicultural background, Paul was born and grow up in São Paulo Brazil, has degrees in Precision Metal Work, Industrial Administration and a MBA.   He started his executive career in Brazil at the Schaeffler Group (INA, LUK, FAG, Hydrel, Continental), later moved to Portugal leading an industrial plant in Viana do Castelo of the Linnemann-Schnetzer Group. After 2 decades of initial professional activities, he moved in 2002 for 5 years to Germany leading the Linnemann-Schnetzer Group which later was taken over by the Frauenthal Group from Austria. Back in Portugal since 2007, he was for 15 years responsible as Managing Director Operations, Sales and Technical Development and as chairman of the board at KIRCHHOFF Automotive, the Portuguese industrial plant of the KIRCHHOFF Automotive Group.   Besides his executive activities Paul also dedicated his time and efforts to support several associations, he was in Portugal member of the board of the German Portuguese’s Industry and Commerce Chamber (CCILA), automotive supplier division of AIMMAP (Portuguese Industrial Association of Metalmechanical and Metallurgical), member of the board of AIMMAP. In Germany he was member of the board of IVS - Metal Work Industry Association e.V. and IDAS - Pressure vessels, equipment, and steel constructions Association e.V.    

Paul Smeets

Chairman Fiscal Committee

Paul has lived in Portugal for more than 30 years. Paul is an entrepreneur "pure sangue" and has owned several businesses. He has been involved in security, real estate, archeology and currently also participates in an internet company called Grande Mercado.

Paul has been a longstanding member of the Chamber and assumed his role as Chairman of the Fiscal Committee for over 15 years.

Paula Malaca

Fiscal Committee

Paula has worked as an accountant and financial controller for companies such as Reuters and PFE Portugal. Paula joined the Fiscal Committee of the Chamber in 2004 and served the Chamber with valuable input.

Large part of her career was dedicated to accounting firm Conceito where she also worked as marketing & sales manager and currently holds the position of Project Manager.

Bernardo Masteling Pereira

FISCAL COMMITTEE

Bernardo started his career working for INE – the Portuguese National Statistics Institute. After that, Bernardo has been a tax advisor for clients across different industries and countries, currently working for Mazars as a senior manager. Bernardo has strong connections with the Netherlands due to his Dutch mother, being fluent on the language, often traveling between countries.   

As a tax advisor, Bernardo has experience on advising multinational groups while investing in Portugal and family-owned Portuguese companies on succession scenarios and M&A deals.