Keynote Speakers
Carmona Rodrigues
Born in Lisbon in 1956, in the civil parish of São Sebastião da Pedreira.
Attended the Liceu Nacional de Padre António Vieira and graduated in Civil Engineering from the Academia Militar in 1978. After a graduate traineeship at the National Civil Engineering Laboratory, he started his career with Hidroprojecto, a hydraulics and sanitation consultancy, in 1978. He completed specialist studies in Hydraulic Engineering in Delft, in the Netherlands, in 1982, with a scholarship from JNICT, and obtained a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 1992, where he still teaches and heads the Prof. Armando Lencastre Hydraulics Laboratory. He attended the Senior Business Management Programme (PADE) at AESE Business School, Lisbon.
He took part in and led several research projects, in particular in the field of water resources management. He has published six books and more than eighty articles in Portuguese and foreign journals. He has supervised Master's dissertations and doctoral theses in the field of water resources and has sat on several panels of examiners.
Over the course of more than 40 years’ experience in water resources, he has been involved in a variety of projects in Portugal and abroad, in particular in the fields of water resources, hydraulics and the environment.
He was elected to Lisbon Municipal Council in December 2001 and later as Mayor of Lisbon in October 2005. In 2007 he was an independent candidate to Lisbon’s municipal authority, sitting on the council until 2009.
As municipal councillor in Lisbon, he also held the following positions: Non-executive director of Valorsul (2002 to April 2003), Chairman of the Board of Directors of EGEAC - Empresa Municipal de Equipamentos e Animação Cultural (September 2004 - March 2005), Chairman of the Executive Board of UCCLA (Union of Portuguese-Speaking Capital Cities) (July 2004 - March 2005), Vice-Chairman of ANMP (Association of Portuguese Municipalities) (2005 - 2007), Chairman of the Management Board of APJ (Junqueira Park Association) (2006 - 2008).
He was Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing, in the 15th Constitutional Government, from April 2003 to July 2004.
He was a Board Member of DHV Portugal, from 2009 to 2012 and CEO of Taguspark, SA, from 2014 to 2017.
He was a member of the Independent Technical Commission for Decentralisation, appointed by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, in Order 96/XIII of 19 September 2018.
He has received the following awards and decorations: Grand Officer of the Order of Merit, Republic of Austria (2005); White Star 1st Class, Republic of Estonia (2006); Personality of the Year, Portugal Smart Cities (2025).
Offices held in the past: Chairman of the Advisory Board of ERSAR, Water and Waste Services Regulatory Authority (2023 to 2024), Member of the Academia de Engenharia (Portuguese Academy of Engineering) (2005 to 2022), member of municipal assembly, Chaves (2021 to 2024), Chairman of Management Board, Associação Portuguesa dos Recursos Hídricos (Portuguese Water Resources Association, 2000 to 2002), Chairman of the Advisory Board of Associação Empresarial de Sintra (Sintra Business Association, 2016 to 2021), Advisor to the Secretary of State for the Environment (12th Constitutional Government) (1993 to 1995).
He also currently holds the following positions: Member of the Conselho Nacional da Água (National Water Council, since 1996), Member of the Portuguese National Committee on Large Dams (since 1998), Member of the Compliance Committee of the Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE-United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/WHO-Regional Office for Europe), Member of the Advisory Board of Plataforma para o Crescimento Sustentável (Platform for Sustainable Growth, since 2024), Trustee of the Fundação Cidade de Lisboa (City of Lisbon Foundation, since 2018), Member of the Management Board of Automóvel Club de Portugal (since 2019), Chairman of the General Meeting of Associação Humanitária de Bombeiros Voluntários de Colares (Colares Voluntary Fire Brigade Association, 2014). Honorary Member of the Academia Portuguesa da História (Portuguese Academy of History, since 2025).
Over the course of his life, he has developed professional contacts in the following countries: Algeria, Angola, Brazil, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Macao, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Singapore, Spain, East Timor, and Tunisia.
Appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of AdP – Águas de Portugal, SGPS, S.A., on 5 June 2024.
Lisbon, July 2025
Frase
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