Dr. Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros
Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros is the co-founder and elected Global CEO of SIGA, Chairman & CEO of SIGA AMERICA, Chairman & CEO of SIGA LATIN AMERICA and Executive Chairman of SIGA EUROPE. He is also the Chairman and CEO of SIGA SOLUTIONS.
Having conceptualized and spearheaded the creation of SIGA and coordinated its development process since early 2015, je was first elected CEO on 31 January 2018 and re-elected Global CEO, by unanimity and acclamation, by the SIGA General Assembly on 31 January 2022.
Lawyer by trade with master degrees and post-graduations on Sports Law and Business Development by Harvard Kennedy School, Faculty of Law of Lisbon, Coimbra University and Portuguese Catholic University, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros initiated his professional career as a lawyer in 1993, after having accumulated invaluable experience and expertise in politics, media and banking sectors.
Over the past three decades, he played a leading role in several national and international sports organisations. After six years as Secretary General of the Portuguese Football League, he co-founded and led the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL or European Leagues) as elected CEO for a decade. He was also one of the founding fathers and driving forces behind the creation of the World League Association, having been elected its CEO in February 2012.
Between 2002 and 2014, Emanuel integrated several Committees and Expert Groups within both UEFA and FIFA, including but not limited to the UEFA Professional Football Strategy Board, the UEFA Professional Football Strategy Council and the UEFA Professional Football Committee, as well as the FIFA Club Football Committee, FIFA Task Force “For the Good of the Game” and Working Groups on International Match Calendar and on the Regulatory Reform on Sports Agents, to name but a few.
Similarly, Emanuel played a critical role in the creation of the Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC), in 2007, a global forum of over 50 international and national sports bodies and competition organisers, with a particular focus on rights issues.
On 1st of July 2008, Emanuel co-founded the European Social Dialogue in the professional football sector under the auspices of the European Commission and led the employers’ delegation on behalf of the European Leagues during the following six years, i.e. until March 2014.
Emanuel also held a seat on several European Union Expert Groups between 2011 and 2018. In March 2012, he was appointed Ambassador for Sports Ethics by the Government of Portugal.
In addition, Emanuel acted as CEO of ICSS EUROPE and ICSS INSIGHT, between 2014 and 2018. He was also member of the World Economic Forum / PACI’s Advisory Committee, member the OECD’s Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade and member of various European Commission’s Task Forces on Good Governance in Sport, Youth Development and other key EU policy areas, for several years.
Currently, besides his responsibilities at the helm of SIGA, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, and of the Brazil B20 Integrity & Compliance Task Force. Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros’s influence also extends to the European Union, where he has been invited by the European Commission Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union to serve as a designated representative for the European Commission Supra-National Risk Assessment.
Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros speaks fluently several languages and cooperates with several universities around the world, as guest professor, on areas of sports law, business management and integrity, and is a regular keynote speaker on several high-level international conferences.