Gala and AmCham Tributes Awards Ceremony

Amyris, OutSystems, United Airlines and Dr. Rodolfo Lavrador honored with the 2018 AmCham Tributes, and Dr. Francisco Pinto Balsemão honored with the Personality award.

With the AmCham Tributes, the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal recognizes entities that stand out in economic and trade relations between Portugal and the US.

Our “Gala and AmCham Tributes Awards Ceremony” took place on March 14, presided over by H.E. the Minister of the Economy, Dr. Pedro Siza Vieira, and by the US Ambassador, Mr. George Glass.

At the welcome drink and at dinner we enjoyed performances by the String Orchestra and the Student Choir of the Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, respectively, who were FANTASTIC!

And that was when we revealed the winners of this 6th edition of the AmCham Tributes.

And the winners are: Amyris; OutSystems; United Airlines; Dr. Rodolfo Lavrador

AmCham Portugal honored these entities because their projects stood out and contributed to promoting relations between Portugal and the US during 2017/2018.

Below we present each of the winners and the reason they were honored.

This year AmCham Portugal decided to create a special award honoring a personality who, throughout their career, has contributed significantly to bringing the two countries closer together. And this year the personality honored was Dr. Francisco Pinto Balsemão.

With his entrepreneurial and innovative vision, Dr. Francisco Pinto Balsemão identified the internationalization of Portugal’s first private television station, SIC, as a strategic axis of development and growth.

Through communication and its message, SIC has over recent decades been responsible for strengthening commercial and cultural ties, bringing the Portuguese community living in the US closer to Portugal, a factor of the utmost importance.

AmCham Tributes

The AmCham Tributes aim to recognize and reward companies, institutions and personalities that have distinguished themselves through their contribution to bringing Portugal and the US closer together and to mutual understanding and, in particular, to strengthening economic and trade relations between the two countries. To this end, a Jury was set up comprising personalities of recognized prestige and heads of the main Portuguese and American entities involved in bilateral relations.

The “AmCham Tributes” awards were presented at our “Gala and AmCham Tributes Awards Ceremony”, which took place at the Marriott Hotel and was presided over by H.E. the Minister of the Economy, Dr. Pedro Siza Vieira, and by the US Ambassador, Mr. George Glass.

AmCham Portugal is an independent, non-profit business association whose goal is to develop and facilitate economic and trade relations between the United States of America and Portugal on the basis of mutual interest. With around 250 Member Companies, it is the largest bilateral business association between Portugal and the US, playing an important role in economic diplomacy.

About the winners of the 2018 AmCham Tributes

Amyris, represented at the ceremony by Mrs Shannon Griffin, Business Operations Manager, who received the Award.

An American company created by a Portuguese man from the Azores, John Melo, who studied in the US and ended up staying there, where he has lived for many years. The company was born from an idea: that they could modify microorganisms, in this case yeasts – the same yeasts that make bread, beer or wine – by altering their DNA and programming them to produce whatever products they wanted. And that was a project they shared with the Gates Foundation: to reduce the cost of the most important drug in the treatment of malaria so that more children could be saved. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thought it was a good idea and funded the company, together with other organizations, for a total of 42 million dollars. And that is how the company began.

Today they produce a world-leading renewable diesel, a renewable jet fuel, cosmetics and much more.

In 2016 the company invested around 50 million euros in Portugal. It established a partnership with the Universidade Católica Portuguesa to create a European Biotechnology Hub in Porto, creating around 150 jobs for scientists. For John Melo, the most important goal is “to employ Portuguese scientists in Portugal instead of them having to leave the country to work”.

OutSystems, represented at the ceremony by Dr. Rui Pereira, Co-founder and Vice President of OutSystems, who received the Award.

OutSystems is a Portuguese multinational founded in 2001, a leader in the low-code development platform segment. Today it has more than 770 employees, most of them software engineers based in Portugal. It is present in 52 countries and 22 industries and has a turnover of around 85 million.

In 2016 it closed a 55 million dollar funding round with the American venture capital firm North Bridge. In 2018, in a new investment round, it raised a further 360 million dollars, led by the venture capital funds of KKR and Goldman Sachs, becoming valued at more than one billion dollars and thus joining the select group of unicorns.

In 2017 the company gained further recognition from the American business magazine Forbes, ranking 6th in the “Best Cloud Companies to Work For” alongside names such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce.com.

United Airlines, represented at the ceremony by Mr. Thorsten Lettnin, Managing Director Sales Continental Europe and India, who received the Award.

United has been in Portugal since May 1997, operating without interruption for 21 years, during which it has always shown a strong commitment to Portugal.

Over the last 4 years it has increased not only the number of flights but also the capacity of its aircraft on the routes between Portugal and the US by more than 60%.

It made history as a pioneer, being the first airline to connect the two capitals, Lisbon and Washington, and again last year by opening a new route connecting the North of the country, Porto, to New York.

Over these 21 years, United has made a decisive contribution to bringing the two countries closer together and to better mutual understanding, as well as to increasing exports.

It is also committed to being part of the community, supporting organizations that share common goals.

Dr. Rodolfo Lavrador was President of the Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce in New York from July 2015 until very recently.

He stood out not only for having revitalized that institution, but above all for his tireless energy in promoting Portugal in the US, especially in New York.

Initiatives such as the “Portugal-Economic Forum”, organized for the first time in 2016, and “The Business Women´s Initiative & Symposium”, among many others, are hallmarks associated with Rodolfo Lavrador.

We had the opportunity to organize several missions to the US where we could count not only on his invaluable collaboration but above all on his friendly company.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!