Responsible for IT Infrastructure, and for IT leisure activities for blind handycaped women.

IBM decided to implement a new unit (the Deal Hub) dedicated to support the proposal process. That was a requirement from sellers and consultants (to relief them from ISO9000 and SOX rules), and also a strong need to assure a "institutional image" on the proposals.I was chosen to lead the unit in Portugal, and besides implementing the so called "WW model" I've also implemented a set of procedures that made my unit one of the most successfull operation in Europe. Various of my collaborators (and myself) had international awards because of this. I have adapted a "large country model" to a "small country model", and when "competency centers" were formed, I have made them "part of my team". This assured high sales satisfaction, and also high people morale.During my last 2-3 years with IBM I've also worked on simplification projects to sell HW with embedded maintenance. I have developed a new application, and implemented new processes that changed the way that >200 IBMers work in Europe towards the overall goal of achieving 24h (or better) response time to proposal requests. Radical simplification actions were implemented, and a new management system was designed to grant its continuous improvement.

IBM had a troubled unit in Portugal. I've been invited (with others) to recover the situation. I became responsible for the management system, implemented a new system, and developed new quality procedures. Troubled contracts were identified and eventually renegotiated. Quality procedures were implemented and root causes of failure were documented and shared with sales teams. As a consequence, that failing unit became profitable, and eventually a "South Region Award" was received due to its performance.On 1999 I was responsible for the IT infrastructure in IBM Portugal. This was perhaps my most challenging year at IBM due to the fact that I received a "demoralized team" of 10 people whose manager was removed from duty after an internal investigation, and 10 months after I had a team of 8 (only one of these 8 was part of the initial 10). During this period my team had to "convert" 600 workstations from OS/2 to Windows95 during 3 months. What seemed to be an "impossible task" was completed on time, on budget, and with high satisfaction.From 2000 onwards I have reorganized the sales support teams into a highly responsible and professional team.

I've started my management career leading the team supporting large clients of IBM in Portugal. That team supported the "infrastructure software" used by those clients (operating system, database, transactional, communications, etc).By the late 80's I've moved to the "CIM area" (industrial products). During 2-3 years my teams helped industrial clients to become leading suppliers to the automotive / aircraft industries, and implement advanced shop-floor management systems (such as "just in time").In the 90's I've held a number of sales positions, either as Sales Manager or Industry consultant, until I moved to non client-facing type of work.

I've entered IBM when I was 19 years old. My initial tasks were in the "scientific area". I have developed two main applications, one to evaluate a large & complex financial investment (a 5B$ investment on a tanker operating during 20 years, subject to market fluctuations), and another to process statistics for the medical industry (to evaluate heart desease causes).Shortly after I've been moved from this "applications area" to the support of high-end IBM computers. I've started with OS/VS1, but when the "mainframe business" started to "explode" in other Countries I've convinced IBM's management to invest on MVS (the "ancester" of zOS). I've installed MVS at several IBM clients, creating a "business area" than soon represented >50% of IBM's business in Portugal.Complementary to MVS, I've also developed skills in database (hierarchical) and transactional systems (mainly IMS/VS). During this period I have also written papers on "computer management" (one was published, the others became client property) and conducted several seminars and education classes.Last, but not the least, I've "opened the mainframe" to end-user computing at TAP/Air Portugal (at a time where the IBM PC was not yet invented). Airplane maintenance schedules, engineering change controls, were some of the applications developed by users with my support.

Computers had been in use in IST but for scientific purposes only. The first computer using disks was installed on 1970 and this created the base to run other types of applications. I was a young student at the time, and my task was the design of a database for student enrollment, able to produce all sorts of documents, and keep track of classifications. The project was completed during 1972, and from then onwards all admin tasks related with student management (enrollment, certificates, lists to publish classifications) started to be produced by a computer (an IBM S/360 model 44PS). The programming language was Fortran, and the main inputs were punched cards.