Ruben Fernandes is the Executive Board Member of the municipal company Águas e Energia do Porto EM. He oversees the areas of water supply, urban drainage, energy, asset management and engineering, customer management, information systems, sustainability and communication, strategic planning, and governance & compliance. He is also an Invited Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Management of the University of Porto.

Previously he was the Coordinator of the Regional Dynamics Monitoring Unit at CCDR-N (Norte Regional Coordination and Development Commission) – a regional body of the Portuguese Government tasked with implementing regional policies in the Northern Region of Portugal.

To date, he has been involved in several projects covering topics related to spatial planning and development, urban metabolism, circular economy, environmental impact assessment, urban regeneration, transport planning, just to name a few. He got his master’s degree in economics and his doctorate degree in Civil Engineering, both at the University of Porto.