Guilherme Cavalcanti is currently the co-founder and first CEO of ARIES - Recife Agency for Innovation and Strategy. A partnership between organized civil society and the Municipality of Recife focused on studies and research of the future of cities, and lead designer of Recife’s long term strategy plan. He is also an investor and co-founder of Impact-HUB Recife, a coworking space placed in the heart of Porto Digital and member of a global network of entrepreneurship, innovation, collaboration and impact makers. Also an investor and co-founder of iCANamy Edutec, a gamified learning environment focused on developing people’s soft skills. Prior to that, he was the CEO of CESAR-PAR, a holding company responsible for managing the investments and assets of CESAR, one of Brazil’s largest and most relevant R&D centers. He sat on the board of all the companies CESAR PAR managed and was a member of the investment committee of the venture capital Fund FUNDOTEC II managed by FIR Capital, where CESAR was one of the LPs, and was part of the effort to raise FIRST fund, an Impact Investment VC Fund. During this period, as part of his job at CESAR-PAR, He was also the CEO of Meantime Mobile Creation for 2 years and a member of CESAR’s innovation and strategy consulting team, with projects developed for large companies operating in Brazil on technology, retail and services sectors. The beginning of his career started as an intern at the International Business Center of Pernambuco, where he worked his way up to General Manager in four years. Mainly working with international trade and business attraction. That led him to become a Director at the Economic Development Agency of Pernambuco, a position he held for two years until he became their youngest ever CEO at the age of 28. During this period, he was part of the team that invested in Recife’s first VC Fund, Rio Bravo Nordeste I, and was a member of the investment committee of the fund. He has a degree in Business Administration from UNICAP and a MBA in Finance from FGV. Also studied Corporate Governance at IBGC, Venture Capital at VCI and M&A at IIR. Throughout his entire career as an executive, he travelled world wide for work and training and had multiple intercultural experiences.