VdA has just appointed Paula Gomes Freire as Managing Partner and João Vieira de Almeida as Senior Partner in its General Meeting held yesterday. The new positions are the result of a recently approved amendment to the firm’s governance model and both appointees will take office in February 2022.

Paula Gomes Freire was already a member of VdA’s Board of Directors and will succeed João Vieira de Almeida as Managing Partner. Her new role includes chairing the Executive Commission and leading the firm’s operational management, focusing on the business, the team, and results. João Vieira de Almeida’s newly minted position as Senior Partner includes chairing the Board of Directors, being responsible for strategic development, partnership management, and especially focusing on protecting and promoting Culture and Sustainability.

With these changes, dictated by its current size and complexity, VdA adopts an innovative model that results in a combined and collaborative leadership, dedicated to different aspects but with the same focus and ambition, based on a vision of leadership and long-term future.

Paula Gomes Freire is “extremely honored and proud to have been appointed VdA’s future Managing Partner, a role I will perform with a great sense of mission and responsibility for the trust placed in me by my partners. We have a clear vision of the challenges faced by our clients and of the market’s demands, but we are also keenly aware of how important our people are and how the team should be empowered. We want to follow our vision and even enhance it, and that will be my main role.”.

João Vieira de Almeida considers that “this is a natural succession process, in line with our vision regarding the project’s sustainability and continuity. My successor has all the right qualities to take on this enormously demanding role. I couldn’t be more confident and prouder of Paula Gomes Freire’s choice considering the esteem and appreciation I have for her personal qualities, but also because she embodies the empowerment of a new generation and the institutional vision we have of VdA. We want to further assert our relevant role in the community and promote aspects of our Culture that we consider important, in line with the path that has already been taken, particularly in terms of Sustainability, and this will be my mission as Senior Partner.”.