Director of the President’s Office since May 2022 and Director of the Gulbenkian Culture Programme since 2021.

Miguel Magalhães was at the French Delegation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 2011 to 2021, serving as Director from 2017.

He has been working with the Gulbenkian Foundation since 2005, where he was assistant director of the programmes Estado do Mundo [State of the World] (2005-2007), Distância e Proximidade [Distance and Proximity] (2008) and Próximo Futuro [Near Future] (2009 – 2011).

He began his professional career at the S. João National Theatre (1996-2000), where he was assistant to the administrative and financial director, among other duties, and from 2000 to 2003 he was artistic director of the Póvoa Casino.

Magalhães holds a degree in Law (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto), a Master’s in Arts Management (City University, London) and attended the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD business school (Fontainebleau, France).

In parallel, he has developed his activity as a researcher in the area of cultural policies and cultural organisation management. He co-authored “Estratégias para a Cultura da cidade de Lisboa” [“Strategies for Culture of the City of Lisbon”], a study commissioned by the Lisbon City Council to the Dinâmia research centre (ISCTE). He was part of the teaching team for the Performing Arts Management/Production Course at Fórum Dança (Lisbon).

Magalhães was a member of the patronage commission of the Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques (now Fondation des Artistes; France) during the biennium 2016-2017, and since 2019 is a member of the Board of Directors of the Fondation Mattei Dogan (France).