Board of Directors
Critical Materials' board comprises both founders and two board members representing Critical Group.
Gustavo R. Dias, Phd Chief Executive Officer and co-founder
Gustavo Dias holds both a Mechanical Engineering and a Master in Structural Engineering degrees from Faculty of Engineering of Oporto University, and received a PhD in Polymer Science and Mechanical Engineering by a join project of University of Minho and Ecole Nationale des Mines, Paris. Gustavo has had experience in academic activities for over 15 years, more recently as an Assistant Professor at University of Minho and in R&D both in Portugal and internationally as a researcher in the field of mechanical and materials engineering. Several years running projects and organizations providing solutions for leading edge industries such aeronautics and space provided a strong experience in management of complex projects and teams, which has now resulted in his founding Critical Materials to answer critical industry needs.
Gustavo serves as a member of Critical Materials Board and has its Chief Executive Officer, where, among other areas, he's responsible for global strategy, marketing and external relations.
Júlio C. Viana, Phd Chief Technology Officer and co-founder
Júlio Viana holds a degree in Production Engineering from University of Minho, a Master in Computer Aided Mechanical Engineering Design from Queen´s University of Belfast and a PhD in Polymer Science and Mechanical Engineering from University of Minho. Júlio's vast, 15+ years, experience in national and international research projects, in advanced materials and production technologies, ranges from pure research to applied industrial solutions. Some of his research work has been on mechanically active polymeric systems and controlled morphology processing applications on Aeronautics & Automotive. His wealth of technological and project management experience provides Critical Materials with leading edge skills and know-how that lead to a steady guidance in the development of highly capable and forward looking solutions to the present and future problems challenging our focus industries.
Júlio serves as a member of Critical Materials Board and as its Chief Technology Officer. He holds responsibilities for the company's operations, research strategy, product development and project management.
Pedro Murtinho Chief Financial Officer
Pedro has been in Critical since 2001, where he was Senior Finance Officer. Beginning of 2005, he became the CFO for Critical Software and then Critical Links. At the moment he is CFO of the Group's Holding company. Before joining Critical, he was for one year the CFO on a real-estate holding with nine companies, which held investments across Portugal and Brazil. During this period he raised project finance operations and led negotiations with large hotel chains such as Marriott. On 2000 he was briefly involved as CFO of a holding working mainly on trading of graphic arts machinery (the second largest vendor in Portugal), where he was in charge of settling representation deals with factories around Europe. At the beginning of his career (from 1995 to 1999) he worked on a regional Association, where he made his internship and became CFO on 1997.Pedro holds a bachelor degree in Corporate Management from the Economics College in University of Coimbra.
Diamantino Costa Vice-President Business Development
As a member of the Board of Directors, Diamantino Costa brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in both business and
software development. He is a co-founder of Critical Software SA and serves as Chairman of Critical Group. At Critical
Software he developed the business on Aeronautics, Space, Defense and Transport markets. He supervised European business operations as well as managing and expanding the global customer footprint, namely space agencies (NASA, ESA and JAXA) and leading prime contractors (Thales Alenia Space, EADS Astrium, etc).
As a researcher at the Dependable Systems Group at the University of Coimbra he authored and presented over 20 papers and
provided material for books on computer software dependability. Dino holds a BSc and an MSc in Informatics Engineering
and Computer Systems Architecture from the University Of Coimbra, Portugal.
