Ricardo Conde is the father of two beautiful girls. He graduated in Electrical and Computers engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) – Technical University of Lisbon, with a background in Telecommunications, Radio frequency, and Space and Ground Systems.

Ricardo has more than 30 years of working in the industrial and institutional space sector. He began his professional career in 1991, having been linked to the Aeronautics and Space sector since 1993, having participated in several national and international Space programs, particularly in Space and Earth Segments.

Since 2019, Ricardo has been a member of the board of directors of the Portuguese Space Agency, and in 2020, he was appointed President of the Agency.

He has been participating as a panellist and keynote speaker in several International Space Congresses, particularly on the emergence of new space agencies as new actors in space, Space sustainability and the role of Space in Earth sustainability. In 2022, Ricardo was the chairperson of the Eureka Network, the larger international network to promote Science and Innovation for SMEs.

Currently, he is the Portuguese representative and head of delegation in the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA), in the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and in the Council of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).