Armando Ribeiro
Founding Partner & CEO

Armando usually doesn’t get into the office very early but he rises with the sun and starts replying to emails before 8 am. Not only he is a compulsive magazines’ buyer, but also loves cinema and photography. He loves meeting new people and sharing experiences and moments, the driving force behind his decision to create O Apartamento’s project. He studied museology and contemporary art, was a buyer for over 10 years and dedicated the last 15 to the communication area. Since he loves traveling, his suitcase is always packed and ready to go whenever he can.

André Marques Santos
National & International Communication & PR Manager

Apart from the awkwardness to build his short bio for websites, André likes to write but no more than he likes to read. Preferably by the sea. With a cool drink. Beyond the beach, what he really enjoys is being at the table, for the pleasure of food, the adventure of discovery and the delight of sharing. He thinks that traveling is the best medicine and is always happy when he gets somewhere where there is no mobile phone network. He asks a lot of questions, watches a lot of tv shows and always has a song playing in his head. After 11am he is also a very cheerful boy.

Catarina Palma
Head of Strategy & Hospitality

Her love of travelling started at an early age and at 17 a course in Italy led to an unexpected Interrail holiday that shocked her parents. She started her professional career at the newspaper Público, but writing about travel was what she really enjoyed. She directed the magazine Rotas & Destinos for over 10 years and spent another decade writing for various publications. Hooked on hotels, she would happily swap home for a suite and a car journey for a flight in first class – a vocation for the good things in life that she further developed during a post-graduate course in luxury marketing. Shy at first, she loves nothing better than a good conversation.

Inês Graça
National & International Communication & PR Manager based in Porto

There was a time when she wanted to be a photographer, a dancer, and an actress, but life led her to embrace a bigger dream: sharing her love for inspiring people and projects with the rest of the world. Inês started as a journalist at Público (P3) and Time Out Porto and later worked in a communication agency before becoming editor-in-chief for Attitude Magazine for six years. The pandemic made her fall in love with yoga, but she admits she much prefers to get up from the mat to meet a new artist, place, or restaurant. She loves to photograph, spends all her souvenir money on the international magazine section at the airport’s newsstand and firmly states that the best memories in life are built around a table with those who make our hearts go faster.

Inês Matos Andrade
Head of Food & Beverage

Half way through the working day, Inês gets up and heads to the kitchen to make pancakes. All she talks about is food and she has a knife and fork tattooed on her arm so nobody’s left in any doubt about what rocks her world. She always has a guidebook on food ready for anyone who visits O Apartamento. She’s a journalist by training – she was editor of the Eat&Drink section at Time Out for 4 years – and a communicator by vocation. A bit of a big mouth, in other words, and usually a loud one at that. If necessary, she can take a decent photo and fix minor computer problems. She’s from the city of Porto, which in Portugal means she’s down to earth.

Paula Cosme Pinto
Account Director

Paula spent a decade of her life working for newspapers and magazines, has a book to her name and still dedicates a good part of her time writing about the challenges of gender equality (though she has never burnt her bra). However, in recent years she has also learnt the art of writing press-releases and discovered the magic of being behind the scenes in communication. Avowedly addicted to travel, books and good conversation, she loves discovering other cultures and meeting new people from all around the world. She hates labels, so more than a consultant, columnist, journalist, feminist or bona fide traveller, she describes herself as a woman. The kind that likes to tell stories.

Rui Matos
National & International Communication & PR Manager

There are two critical things Rui simply cannot live without: eating and talking. He seldomly turns down a snack and a good chat — especially if there is red wine involved. He reads a lot about fashion, pop culture, and films. He’s addicted to the long-form profiles featured in Vanity Fair. Joan Didion is his greatest reference; Vanessa Friedman and Robin Givhan are his role models as far as writing is concerned — and probably the reasons he got into Vogue Portugal, where we worked for six years. In a perfect world, Rui would always be home reading, writing, listening to music, and it would always be cold outside. And don’t even get him started about summer and hot days.

Sofia Nobre
National & International Communication & PR Manager

Inquisitively restless, it is only after her first coffee that she can face new challenges and meet new people and projects. Her International Relations studies took her to Brussels, but the lack of sun and sea, and the institutional substance of the job, ended up bringing her back and directing her attention to a new segment: the hotel business.
Her first steps were in PR, followed by a myriad of courses and specialisations, as well as several hotel openings that bestowed her with the experience she was looking for and eventually led her to a position as the Marketing Director for the Altis Hotels group. Her passion for travelling, which begins with the meticulous preparation of the itinerary, turned her phone into a compendium of notes and photos of various hotels, places, markets, objects, and — almost obsessively — food!
She’s a fast walker, even in heels. That’s probably why her most significant power source is a long walk, preferably on the beach.

Teresa Roque de Pinho
Head of PR & New Business

A bit here and a bit there, Teresa always leaves something of herself behind wherever she goes. Born in France and raised in Switzerland, she lived in Brazil before settling in Portugal for good, as she could no longer resist the call of her roots and the many Portuguese charms. Her Helvetian mind guides her day-to-day, but she always put her Portuguese heart first. She studied Hospitality Management in Lausanne, so she’s definitely your event and party expert. Her sharp, versatile side goes perfectly together with her human side: she nourishes her soul when she meets new people and grows among them — and with a Campari on the rocks, even better! Her organizational inclinations are often seen as an obsession or perhaps a central flaw. A true gourmet and lover of all the good things in life, laughing comes easy to her, and she does not go unnoticed wherever she goes.

Soraia Martins
Content Creator

Writing runs in her blood virtually since she can hold a pen, and reading is second to none. Perhaps that is why she’s been dedicated her life to languages and translation to shorten the world’s distances more easily. Moving to Lisbon opened her eyes to the publishing universe, starting in one of the first online magazines in Portugal, which stirred her towards other publications like a moth to a flame. She founded a company with three friends and, years later, decided she wanted to face the world on her own: writing, translating, and everything in-between.

Vanessa Seabra
Travel & Hospitality Consultant

The sheer bliss of having been raised in an unconventional family with many places to call home gives her a special kind of sense of place wherever she goes. The early goal was to have diplomacy follow this natural way of life, but the International Relations degree was dropped halfway through. She figured that becoming a “tourist” would be the perfect volte-face. After finishing the Hospitality Management degree, she amassed experience in some of the best international hotel chains — Marriott International, The Ritz-Carlton Company, and Leading Hotels of the World —, leading the sales, marketing, and communication departments. She loves art exhibitions and architecture, but music helps her find what she needs to keep moving. Family is her safe haven, and she even admits what makes her shed a tear is the privilege of showing her kids all the beautiful things in the world.

Vasco Águas
Head of Art, Crafts, Design, Interiors
and Special Projects

With a background in architecture, Vasco soon fell in love with photography, design and fashion. Being the creative director of a concept store gave him the know how to explore his passions and allowed him to have contact with artists and creatives from around the world. Multifaceted and curious by nature, designed scenarios for television, did film production and addicted to crafts workshops, he can also roll up his sleeves if an electrical installation needs to be fixed. He is quiet and secretive but with a great – sometimes warped, according to his colleagues – sense of humour. Roxy, his dog, laughs when he comes home.

Vera Abecassis

Client Director

Her 5 years living in Paris gave her a certain Parisian je ne sais quoi. It was the perfect place to study art history, learn about culture and wine, eat well, develop good taste and sharpen a certain sleuth-like spirit by wandering the city and discovering charming streets, unexpected shops and must-visit bistros. But Lisbon is the city that has dazzled her over the last decade as one of the founders of ConVida Guides. As an editor, she got to know the city from the inside and as head of the shopping section she always had one eye on fashion. Calm and discreet, she’s more a listener than a talker, but she’s always ready for a good laugh.

Photos : © Pedro Ferreira