The appointment of the former president of InvestBraga follows the decision to separate the roles of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board, both held since April 14, 2023, by Luís Rodrigues.
The current CEO, Luís Rodrigues, along with other members of the Board, will remain in their positions.
Carlos Oliveira, a graduate in Systems and Informatics Engineering from the University of Minho, served as Secretary of State in the 19th Government of Pedro Passos Coelho, responsible for Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness, and Innovation. He was also president of InvestBraga, the Economic Development Agency of the Municipality of Braga, and was responsible for Startup Braga.
Questioned about the reasons for this separation of roles, the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, stated it follows the “best governance practices implemented not only here but also at the European level.”
In a meeting with journalists, the minister clarified that the changes will take effect soon, no later than next week.
Before Luís Rodrigues joined TAP, the roles were separate. Christine Ourmières-Widener was the CEO and Manuel Beja was the Chairman of the Board. Both were dismissed for just cause by the Government of António Costa following a controversial compensation to Alexandra Reis, a former director of the airline and Secretary of State.
The airline’s Board of Directors also includes Gonçalo Pires, Mário Cruz, Sofia Lufinha, Mário Chaves, Maria João Cardoso, Ana Lehman, João Duarte, and Patrício Ramos.
Today, the Government approved the decree-law that paves the way for the sale of TAP to be initiated, which will return to private shareholders after being nationalized in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic on air transport.
The decree-law must also be approved by the President of the Republic, who in October 2023, vetoed the document prepared by the Government of António Costa to start the privatization of TAP. At the time, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa decided to return the bill, approved by the Council of Ministers on September 28 of that year, as it “raised multiple doubts and reservations in light of the desired maximum transparency of the process.”
The reprivatization of the airline has been on the agenda since 2023, but was halted with the fall of the last two PS and PSD governments.
Originally state-owned, TAP was partially privatized in 2015, but the process was reversed in 2016 by the Government of António Costa, which regained 50% of the company.
Last year, Luís Montenegro’s executive resumed the topic and expressed an intention to proceed with the sale of a minority stake in 2025. Since then, negotiations have been ongoing with major European groups such as Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and IAG.
