Manuela Cipriano Messias Email and Phone Number

Business Development and Integration, including Strategy and Resource Management with a particular focus on the financial area.

Instructor for the courses of Strategy and Finance in the Voice Leadership Program (Nova School of Business & Economics), a program on Business Management for Modernization and Competitiveness Enhancement, aimed at decision-makers of Portuguese SMEs.

• Board Member of several companies, most of them relevant in size, mostly belonging to the Sovena and Nutrifarms Groups. CFO of Nutrinveste Group.

• CFO with responsibility for coordinating the Finance, Management Control, Accounting/Tax, and Information Systems areas at the Group level, encompassing the framework and management of these functional areas in different companies in different geographies. The Group has a sales volume of over one billion euros and more than 1000 employees (directly and indirectly coordinating the management of about 100 people in the financial area in different geographies). The Group operates in several geographic locations such as Portugal, Spain, the United States, Brazil, Italy, and Angola, in addition to its exporting activities (mainly from Portugal and Spain) to more than 80 different countries.~• Leadership in diversifying the Group sources and financing instruments. Negotiation and relationship with Portuguese, Spanish, US (particularly for the case of Sovena US), and international financial institutions. Management of a Group balance sheet debt in the order of hundreds of millions of euros.• Among other M&A operations, negotiation and structuring of the Tierra Project transaction (olive plantations, about 5000 ha, acquired from the SOS-Cuetara Group (currently Deoleo), including coordination of all contractual aspects and also structuring of the financial operation related to this acquisition (renegotiation of pre-existing debt/new financing).• Structuring of the Elaia Group spin-off operation (which led to the formation of the Nutrifarms Group), including leadership (reporting to the Nutrinveste administration) of the entire negotiation process for the deal, with the definition of the transaction structure, target corporate structure, asset split mechanism, tax and accounting issues optimization, and negotiations with financial institutions and other partners.• Leadership in the M&A process that led to the acquisition of Centazzi by the Nutrinveste Group, including negotiation with the previous shareholder and development of the entire transactional process.

• Responsible for the Group's Management Control area (with direct reporting to the Board), including coordinating the Controllers of the various companies in the Group.• Planning and Control, including the overall Group budget and subsequent monitoring of its implementation, for each company and at consolidated level. Cost control (in the different functional areas of the different companies, including industrial, commercial, and support areas).• Responsible for Group M&A, with leadership (direct reporting to the Board) of several relevant Investment / Divestment / Partnership processes. Among other operations, reference to the sale of Compal and Nutricafés, sale of Triunfo, and the acquisition of East Coast Olive Oil (future Sovena US). Process regarding Simão e Companhia, being part of the creditor committee and monitoring the company, involving negotiations with credit institutions, suppliers, and other creditors, which ultimately led to Sovena's acquisition of the Andorinha brand (which proved crucial for Sovena's growth in Brazil - currently the top brand in Brazil). Main role in Structuring and formalizing the partnership with Atitlan (a Spanish financial company), including leading (report to the Board) the negotiating of the shareholder agreement, to create the Elaia Group (including also the definition of the corporate structure of the new Group and its capital structure, as well as the negotiating of bank financing to support the new operation).

• Global Business Optimization through Portfolio Rationalization. Divestment of non-core businesses / companies, including negotiation and coordination of the transactions (sale to third parties / MBOs).• Strong involvement in Optimization via Business / Company Reorganization. In particular, operational coordination in the diagnosis and implementation of the optimization of the cookie business area of the Nutrinveste Group (Triunfo / Nacional / Proalimentar companies), including industrial and logistics issues (production lines, production geographic centralization) but also encompassing commercial / marketing aspects (commercial structure coordination / single structure need and consistent positioning of different brands).• Strategic Partnerships monitoring.

• Collaboration in different valuation projects for several companies, particularly in the agri-food sector, which would later become part of the Nutrinveste Group.

• Teaching Assistant and subsequently Graduated Teaching Assistant in the Department of Chemical Engineering (teaching activities in Chemical Engineering and Materials Engineering courses). Scientific research focused on the area of Separation Processes / Pervaporation.