Gonçalo Quadros is co-founder and Chairman of Critical Software SA, a software engineering company headquartered in Coimbra, Portugal, with offices in Lisbon, Porto, Viseu, Vila Real, Tomar and subsidiaries in the US, UK, and Germany.
He graduated in 1987 in Electrical Engineering (Computer Science), worked in industry and taught at University of Aveiro and University of Coimbra prior to obtaining his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Coimbra in 2002.
Gonçalo Quadros co-founded Critical Software in mid-1998 and won the best business plan award from the National Young Entrepreneurs Association (ANJE) in 1998. He was responsible for launching and consolidating several Company Business Units assuming responsibilities for project and technical
management and also for business development.
He was the Chief Executive Officer of the company from the beginning of 2005 until the end of 2011, role that he reassumed from August 2014 until August
2019. He is currently Chairman of Critical Software.
In 2006 he was honored by the President of Portugal with the “Ordem de Mérito Grande-Oficial”. Afterwards he received the II INSEAD Entrepreneurship Award (promoted by Portuguese INSEAD Alumni); the Ernst&Young (Portuguese
Branch) Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award; the Best Leader Awards, New Technologies category, promoted by Leadership Consulting, and the Personality of the Year 2013 in the field of Information Society (promoted by Associação para a Promoção e Desenvolvimento da Sociedade de Informação).
In 2019 he was awarded with the “Prémio Universidade de Coimbra”.