As Chairman of H+K Portugal, Francisco brings more than 20 years of experience in team leadership with a proven track history of outstanding customer service.

A founder of FxT (2013), a Public Affairs and Public Relations Boutique Agency, Francisco merged the portfolio with WPP Portugal, becoming partner of WPP and serving as CEO of H+K Portugal from 2017-2023.

With extensive experience in media coaching and crisis management, Francisco worked in AICEP, the Portuguese Agency that promotes foreign investment in Portugal, and the internationalization of Portuguese companies. There he led official business missions to China, Macau, Indonesia, Singapore, Angola, Peru and Colombia with the highest Portuguese national representatives.

He was also a former journalist in tier 1 media outlets based in Lisbon including as Diário Económico, Económico TV, O Independente e Grupo Renascença.

Born in Sintra, Francisco studied Journalism, Marketing, Political Science and Artificial Intelligence in Albuquerque (USA), Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain) and Oxford (UK). He is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Francisco is vice-president of APECOM (the Portuguese association of public relations agencies) and a board member of the Luso-Brazilian Foundation.

José joined H+K in March 2023. He is an enthusiastic executive with extensive experience in operations and corporate transformation in multicultural environments, including 12 years in Brazil.

José brings three-decades of multi-sector experience in public management, operations, logistics, and corporate transformation across both Portugal and Brazil.

Before joining the agency, José served as special logistics director for Rangel Logistics Solutions. Prior to that role, he was CEO of Urbanos, one of the leading logistics companies in Portugal, and also served as chief information officer for a telecom company, DEDIC. Earlier in his career, José served as chief of staff in both the CDS and XV Constitutional Government and was a journalist for Portuguese weekly newspaper, O Independente.

He’s passionate about turnarounds and public affairs, and despite his focus on results what really drives him is managing teams and taking the best from each one.

Piedade is H+K Portugal´s Chief Operations Officer, and part of the management team. She joined Hill+Knowlton in 2017 when Public Affairs and Public Relations Boutique Agency, FXT, merged with H+K Portugal.

With more than 22 years of experience, Piedade started her career as a Graphic ​​Designer at the newspaper ‘O Semanário’, then held project management roles in several Advertising Agencies including BrandiaCentral and Fluor Design where she worked in the consumer, banking, telecommunications, food & beverage, political and institutional areas.​​​ In addition, she served as Country Manager at POPAI Portugal (Non-profit Association for Marketing at Retail), and worked at OMD digital / FUSE (Omnicom Group) where she was responsible for brand activations ‘on field’, softsponsoring, branded entertainment, and social media.

Piedade studied Graphic Design and has the Advanced Program of the Portuguese Catholic University in Digital Marketing Management. She also completed a Board´s Director Programme in Henley Business School – London.

As Chief Client Officer, Francisca adopts a specialist approach to dealing with complex agenda planning and executing effective stakeholders’ relations. She provides holistic and integrated solutions for clients dealing with the public sector which extends to matters concerning media relations, strategic consulting and crisis communications. She advises clients on key Portuguese political-decision making, public policy issues and regulatory developments with a view to align business strategy with government priorities.

Since joining Hill+Knowlton Strategies in 2017 as Senior Account Director for the Corporate & Public Affairs team, she has been the lead director for accounts including the European Commission, Oliver Wyman, Visa, Nespresso, Cellnex and Mars.

Before joining H+K, Francisca served as the Head Press Advisor to the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she led both global and local communication strategies.

Francisca has a background in journalism where she was the Senior Editor at Sol, a Portuguese weekly newspaper, the Executive Director of Feel It, a magazine for Portuguese speaking markets (published in Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde) and lastly, a senior journalist at LuxWoman, a women’s lifestyle magazine.

Francisca graduated from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1998, Portugal) with a Communication Sciences degree. In addition, she holds further qualifications from the Institute of Higher European Studies (1999, The Netherlands) where she specialised in Communications and Politics.

Francisca frequently attends and contributes to research at the Portuguese think-tank, Portugal XXI. She is passionate about environmental issues and actively supports several initiatives to promote healthy and sustainable environmental development.

With a degree in Communication Design and postgraduate in Marketing Management and most recently in Digital Marketing from ISEG, Ana Castro Rego began her career as an Art Director in several creative agencies, later moving to the area of ​​customer service, and assuming the position of account management and strategic planning.

Before joining Hill + Knowlton Strategies, she was Strategic Planning Director at 9 Communication. In her professional career, she worked with healthcare, banking, consumer and entertainment clients on projects ranging from branding, digital, advertising, social media, brand activation to public relations.

Susana started working as an Account Director in H+K Portugal in January 2018 to manage a healthcare team with accounts such as Novo Nordisk, Medtronic, Celgene, GSK, Octapharma, Linde Healthcare, Astellas Pharma, Royal Canin and several patient associations.

She has 11 years of experience in healthcare communications in areas such as Public Relations, Media Relations, Public Affairs, content production and patient advocacy.

She worked in two other communication agencies and managed accounts such as Sanofi, Roche, Roche Diagnostics, Biogen, Boston Scientific, Abbvie, Novartis, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, medical and patient associations.

Susana has a degree in journalism from Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra.