João Castro
João Castro
Associate Professor
Operations, Technology and Innovation Management
Teaching Track

João Castro is Associate Professor (Adjunct) at Nova School of Business and Economics, where he teaches in master and executive programs. He is also Academic Supervisor of the Digital Experience Lab.

João has served extensively in industry, leading and managing innovative technology projects such as the first website designed for broadband in Portugal, the world’s first fully contactless ticketing system for multi-modal public transportation and the deployment of wifi and online services for the entire academic community in Portugal, including the first nation-wide implementation of federated network authentication for academics (eduroam). Among other projects, he also contributed to the pilot program in electronic voting in Portugal.

After concluding the Ph.D in Engineering Systems at MIT, he spent a short time at Stanford University as a post-doc with the Center for Design Research and later was the director of disruptive innovation for a leading FMCG beverage company in charge of digital transformation, search for new business models and products, and promoting an innovation culture within the organization.

He is partner in aseed capital firm and sits on the board of public and private companies, contributing with his expertise in new technologies and innovation management.

2011 - Post Doctoral Fellow, Stanford University, Center for Design Research, Stanford, USA

2010 - Ph.D in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2005 - M.S in Engineering Design (ABD), Instituto Superior Técnico

2000 - B.S in Electrotecnic and Computer Engineering, University of Porto





Research interests focused on the intersections of technology, innovation and business, more specifically digital transformation, innovation management, design thinking, product design and development and systems thinking