Professor at the Faculty of Law at the Catholic University of Portugal, where he completed his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies, Gonçalo Nuno da Cruz Saraiva Matias has been the Chairman of the Board and the Executive Commission of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation since 2022, roles he assumed after several years as an administrator in this foundation.
Alongside Maria Lúcia Amaral, he is the new addition to the ministerial lineup that the designated Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, presented today to the President of the Republic. Carlos Abreu Amorim is also on the list of ministers, transitioning from the State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs.
Gonçalo Saraiva Matias joins the XXV Constitutional Government as the Deputy Minister and Minister for State Reform, an area not entirely unfamiliar to him, as he was the Assistant Secretary of State for Administrative Modernization in the 27-day government of Passos Coelho in 2015.
Born in Lisbon in 1979, Gonçalo Saraiva Matias was the director of the Católica Global School of Law and specializes in Regulatory, Administrative, Constitutional, and International Law.
Identifying poverty as one of the fundamental challenges of Portuguese society, he conducted research as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law School and was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
He also served as the director of the Migration Observatory and in 2024 was one of four citizens “of recognized merit” invited to join the National Council for Migration and Asylum, chaired by António Vitorino.
In 2016, he was awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, as revealed in the curriculum note published on the Foundation’s website.
