Nova promotes Daniel Traça to the dean’s job

Nova School of Business and Economics has promoted deputy director Daniel Traça to be dean of the Lisbon-based business school. Prof Traça is the first alumnus of Nova to become dean of the school.

After graduating from Nova with a bachelors in economics in 1990, Prof Traça studied for a PhD at Columbia University in New York. He taught at Insead in France and Singapore and Solvay Brussels Business School in Belgium before returning to his alma mater in 2009.

Prof Traça will head up the school at a time of rapid growth, with applications for Nova’s masters programmes having increased by 30 per cent a year for the past five years, in spite of Portugal’s economic difficulties. Nova is also one of the two partners, along with Catolica Lisbon, in the Lisbon MBA.

The school is also breaking ground for its €50m new campus this summer, with plans to move there in two years. The facility will enable Nova to double its student enrolments from 2,500 to 5,000.

Prof Traça succeeds José Ferreira Machado, who held the post for 10 years.