Ricardo Castanheira

Coordinator of the Telecom/Digital Team at the PT Permanent Representation to the EU

Since 2017 Ricardo Castanheira is the Coordinator of the Telecom/Digital Team at the PT Permanent Representation to the EU. Chair the Telecom & Info Society Working Party of the Council; Chair the Internal Market Working Party (Digital Services Act) of the Council; Chair of the Copyright Working Party of the Council; Co-Chair of the Audiovisual Working Party of the Council. In charge of several negotiations related to the Digital Single Market: Digital Services Act, Audiovisual (AVMS Directive reform); Privacy (ePrivacy Directive reform) and Data Protection; Information Society (.eu TLD, Public Sector Information - PSI, P2B - Platforms to Business); Data Economy (Free Flow of Non-Personal Data); Copyright (@ in the DSM, SatCab Regulation); DEP-Digital Europe Program; Disinformation online-Fake News.
Previously, he was General Director of Motion Picture Association – Latin America, since 2013, which represents institutionally the six biggest studios in the world: Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, 21st Century Fox, Universal, Paramount.
Ricardo Castanheira was also the Director for the Corporate Affairs for Microsoft Brazil, from 2011 to 2013; Director for the Juridical and Corporate Issues of Microsoft Portugal, from 2007 and 2011; President of FDTI (Foundation for the Promotion of Information Technologies), in Lisbon, between 2005 and 2007. For many years he practiced law as a main partner of CAPA – Law Firm, in Coimbra.
Between 1995 and 2002, he was the youngest deputy in the Portuguese Assembly, elected for Coimbra. He was also a Deputy of the NATO Assembly (1999/2002) and a petitioner of the Committee of the 24 in the United Nations, in NY.
He actively intervenes in diverse entities such as ABPI (Brazilian Association of the Intellectual Property) and Federation of the Portuguese Trade Chambers in Brazil.
He is graduated in Law (1997) for the University of Coimbra, and he holds diverse additional formations: Negotiations for the University of Harvard – John F. Kennedy School of Government (Boston); in Communication Management for the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV); an Advanced Program in Management (AMP) for the Instituto de Empresa – Business School (Madrid) and a Mini – MBA for the INDEG Business School (Lisbon).