I am a lucky person!

After being appointed CEO of Dia Portugal, I had to move from Porto to Lisbon. It wasn’t an easy decision to take. Before moving I was flying 6 times per week, from Porto to Madrid and from there to Lisbon, and back to Porto to start all over again.It was impractical, expensive and fatigue was winning over my resistance. But moving to Lisbon, meant I had to stop teaching at Católica University, and that was the last thing I wanted.

The opportunity José Santos gave me, inviting me to be his assistant professor, meant so much to me, that giving that away was making me suffer much more than the fatigue it represented to go back to Porto just for a couple of classes every week.

And the moment to say goodbye came as no surprise!

I took a plane to Porto after lunch and I stepped down from being a teacher at Católica, on a meeting with the Dean by 5 p.m.

I left the school an hour later and headed to the airport to return to Lisbon. I was feeling really sad by turning that page of my life, I wished so much to keep. Iwas pretty sure I would miss very much being a teacher and the academic life that I loved so much.

Cueing at check-in I heard the voice of José Ramalho Fontes calling me! José Manuel had been recently appointed Dean at AESE, the first Business School at Portugal, where I had the opportunity to be the youngest participant ever of the PADE –the flag ship program of executive education.

Hearing him, awaked me from my sadness. And we started talking about our new professional responsibilities. At a certain point I explained why I was atPorto that day and how much I regretted to have to stop teaching.

I was really far from expecting his next question:

“…Ramiro, if you like to teach, do you want to teach at AESE?

No more than 45 minutes had passed since I stepped down at Catolica, and I was receiving an invitation to keep teaching, this time at the most prestigious Business School of Portugal. If this isn’t to be a lucky person, then I don’t know what being lucky is!

I’m teaching by now for more than 25 years at AESE, but I will never forget that magic moment when José Manuel invited me and the joy, I felt telling him: “yes, definitively yes!

This is my tribute personal to the now retired President of AESE – It changed my life on many and different ways – all of them positive - and my walk of life would never be so satisfying as it has been if it wasn’t by this invitation. We disagree many times on many topics, but José doesn’t know what hard feelings is, and I don’t waste my time with them either. My debt of gratitude is priceless and endless and I’m very proud to call him a friend.

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