Paulo Maló
Paulo Amorim
Pedro Pinto
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lionesa
Pedro Pinto was born in Aguiar da Beira. As he has always had a vocation and interest in adding value to what already exists, anticipating futures, he soon changed his legal career to management, operating in sectors that have acquired greater economic dynamism and thus heading investments in areas such as hotels, restaurants, real estate, tourism, publishing, books and jewellery. Although the Livraria Lello, in Oporto, is a project he passionate about, so is the Centro Empresarial Lionesa. Moreover, passion is a condiment that he employs in everything it does.
«The Lionesa is not ready-to-wear, rather a tailor who makes bespoke suits». What does this ‘tailor’ do differently?
The Lionesa is a mission that reconciles emotion and reason. The emotion I feel in the pleasure of creating something different; and reason when the market validates that something so very different makes sense. The Lionesa is indeed a suit, which hugs the body of the wearer. The Lionesa is, therefore, itself bespoke.
What was the trigger behind the Lionesa 2025 project?
The world in 2017 has nothing to do with the world in 1944, the year that the Lionesa became a factory. Not even with the world in 2002, when I believed that some ruins should be a centre for the most intense, competitive and flexible business life. The Lionesa is proof that in business too there can be magic, that of transforming reality into something more valuable once you get your hands on it. Because we want to try, do, fail and achieve and, thus, make progress.
What does it consist of?
The Lionesa isn’t just a territory of tenants, despite being the largest business centre for new industry 4.0 in the entire country. The Lionesa has become home to increasing numbers of people hungry for the future, unafraid to take risks and to live more and better. And the Lionesa gives them this. It gives them that ‘more’ and that ‘better’.
«The Lionesa has become home to increasing numbers of people hungry for the future, unafraid to take risks and to live more and better»
The group announced an investment of 10 million Euros in the renovation of the Monastery of Leça do Balio. To what end?
Right next to the Lionesa, there is a monastery that has been closed for too long. With the brilliant intervention of Siza Vieira, it is now affirmed as the development hub behind brand new contemporary cultural provision. As one of the starting points, transit points and support locations of the Camino de Santiago, it will now be a renovated starting point for pilgrims. A clear invitation arises, extending our usual focus: to add value to the value that was already there and which, with undeniable pride and even more pleasure, we only help to reveal.
What new projects does the Lionesa Group have for the future?
As it is customised, the Lionesa is now open to the near future, in which an even more capable Lionesa is being built, endowed with new office areas, new parking areas and renovated accessibility structures. We have also built an increasingly green Lionesa. This future also includes heritage and culture. The near future of the Lionesa is already today. More than the finishing line for success, the success of the path to get to that point. More than the destination, the journey. Always.
