UMinho professor elected president of the Portuguese Association for Quality

Paulo Sampaio, Associate Professor with Aggregation at the Department of Production and Systems at the School of Engineering at the University of Minho and researcher at the ALGORITMI Center, was elected, last week, president of the Portuguese Association for Quality (APQ).

Professor and researcher in the areas of Quality and Organizational Excellence, Paulo Sampaio, who has obtained several recognitions, including the distinction for American Society for Quality with the category of Senior Memberrecognition as one of the “40 New World Voices of Quality”, and laureate of the Feigenbaum Medalassigned by the same association, will take on the position for the three-year period 2024-2026.

The UMinho professor presented the candidacy “Uma APQ de Todos e para Todos” for voting, which aims to bring together and value the members of this association.

The professor considers that APQ “plays a fundamental role in promoting Quality in Portuguese society and economy” and that therefore “it must continue its path of individual and collective mobilization, inclusive and differentiating, with its associates and the surrounding society” .

“This election means the completion of a project that has been postponed for some time. After some reflection, I considered this to be the right time in my career to take this step. He had already been vice-presidency of the APQ Board between 2010 and 2015, having returned in 2021 for the term that has now ended. APQ plays a very important role in promoting Quality, not only among companies, public bodies and universities, but also among civil society. This is what I am committed to in the mandate for which I was elected. APQ, in its space, must contribute to helping Portugal continue to grow and evolve through the creation of value”, he stated.

The UMinho professor has already launched challenges for the mandate that lies ahead, namely in the transformation that APQ itself will have to make in order to be able to prepare its future in the face of a changing world. “We want to build an APQ for the future, a future that goes far beyond the next fifty years”, explained Paulo Sampaio, who assumed that his direction will be aligned with principles guided by respect for everyone in the structure, ethics in the work to be developed , for sharing knowledge and for the value created for associates.

APQ is a non-profit organization, founded in 1969, recognized as a Public Utility Institution in 1984, and whose purpose is to promote and disseminate theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of Quality and Excellence in Portugal.

It develops its activities individually or in partnership with other entities, seeking to present innovative and mobilizing solutions, creating value for Associates and contributing to the sustained development of Portuguese society.

Headquartered in Lisbon, APQ has regional delegations in Porto and Faro, in the Azores and Madeira Archipelagos and currently has around 1000 members, including individuals and organizations.