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He is a practitioner of discomfort, arguing that some exposure to uncertainty is needed to evolve and that “points in I’s do not always have to be well defined.” Vasco Mendes de Almeida, the current CEO of Indra Portugal, assumed the leadership of the company that, among other areas, operates in the Defense Sector, in 2024 in a globally challenging context for Europe and the world. Is the guest of this episode of podcast “The CEO is the limit”
He is 53 years old, more than 25 career, four children in the curriculum and defines himself as a leader focused on overcoming, “whether to achieve goals or to learn more.” A permanent restlessness and discomfort that helped Vasco Mendes de Almeida, the current CEO of Indra Portugal, to go through a path of progression to the top in the company where he became professional.
Graduated in Electrotechnical Engineering from Instituto Superior Technical, with complementary training in Management, Vasco Mendes de Almeida arrived at the Indra Group in 2005, after a passage at the consultancy at Getronics. Over the past two decades he has assumed various management positions in the areas of business development and strategy in the Spanish company that operates, among other areas, in the defense sector. Indra does not produce armament, but acts as an integrator of various technological solutions – such as artificial intelligence, safe communications or advanced sensors and sensors – applied to challenging defense and management.
Vasco Mendes de Almeida reached the leadership of the Indra Group in Portugal and in the Portuguese -speaking countries (Palop) in 2024, in a particularly challenging context for Europe and the world. “In terms of defense, we were living in the status quo the world had, thinking it was unchanging. We realized it was not,” he says.
Vasco recognizes the challenges of leading a business in a highly regulated sector and where decisions do not make raptures. Under the situation of the country with regard to defense, note: “I do not say that Portugal is late, but now it has clearly gaining speed.”
Recognized as a leader who privileges proximity to his teams, points out that the availability for theUvir people “it’s more than just having an open door to receive those who have something to say, to have a proactive attitude of wanting to hear, wanting to know, wanting to know.”
One of your battles is that of ‘phenomenalization’ of error and failure. It is necessary to remove the weight you have. “We are fear of the error that is blocker. I can make mistakes, I have to correct fast and learn from it.” Another is the permanent preparation of succession. Training successors is the leader’s obligation and, vinca, “it is not an altruistic act. In fact, it may even have some selfishness or ambition. If I have a structured succession and a challenge arises, I will be eligible to him and my departure will not be blocked because there is no one to my place.”
The CEO is the limit is the leadership podcast and career of Expresso. Every week journalist Cátia Mateus shows him who they are, how they started and what they did to reach the top the Portuguese managers who marked the past, those who drive the present, and those who promise to shape the future. Inspiring stories, told in the first person, who dare to make it happen. Listen to other episodes:
