Álvaro Santos Almeida takes over management of the SNS on Tuesday

The new executive director of the National Health Service (SNS), Álvaro Santos Almeida, will take office this Tuesday, February 11, according to the order published this Monday in the Official Gazette.

According to the order, Santos Almeida will serve for a period of three years and is authorized to continue teaching in public or public interest Higher Education institutions.

The new executive director is a former PSD deputy, and has professional experience as an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics of Porto, was a councilor without portfolio at the Porto City Council, and president of the board of directors of the Northern Regional Health Administration.

Álvaro Santos Almeida will replace the former executive director, António Gandra d'Almeida, who resigned last month after a controversy over undue remuneration that the former executive director received while in office.

Who is Alvaro Santos Almeida?

A professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto and at the Porto Business School, Álvaro Santos Almeida, 60, was born in the parish of Sé, in Porto, and holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was president of the Health Regulatory Authority between 2005 and 2010, and then took over as head of the Northern Regional Health Administration, a position he resigned from a year later, in a conflict with the then socialist government.

In addition to his academic career and his work in the management of these organizations, Álvaro Santos Almeida has a political career. In the 2017 local elections, he was the PSD/PPM candidate for the Porto City Council.

Between 2019 and 2022, he was a member of the Assembly of the Republic and became known for being critical of the actions of the then Minister of Health, Marta Temido, in the government of António Costa. In Parliament, he stood out in parliamentary committees linked to health, but also to topics such as budget, finance, foreign affairs and Portuguese communities.

When he was appointed, the minister responsible, Ana Paula Martins, highlighted the profile more geared towards “management”, but also the “knowledge” and “sensitivity to health” of the new CEO of the SNS.

“He is one of the most knowledgeable figures in the country in the health sector”, highlighted Ana Paula Martins, praising the “vast curriculum” of Álvaro Santos Almeida, former president of the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS). A professor at the University of Economics of Porto, Álvaro Santos Almeida was also president of the Northern Regional Health Administration.