
Encourages independent and critical thought.
Pedro Oliveira serves as Dean and Cascais Chair Professor in Operations, Technology, Innovation & Management at the Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, within the Business & Economics faculty. He earned his PhD in Operations, Technology and Innovation Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004, MSc in Operations Research and Systems Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in 2000, and Licenciatura in Naval Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in 1996. Additionally, he has undertaken advanced training at Harvard Business School and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Prior to his current roles, Oliveira was Senior Associate Dean for Faculty & Research and Director of the Research Unit in Business and Economics at Católica-Lisbon School of Business & Economics, where he also directed the Lisbon MBA—a joint venture with Nova SBE and MIT Sloan—and the doctoral program in Technology Change and Entrepreneurship with IST and Carnegie Mellon University. He held positions as International Faculty Fellow at MIT Sloan School of Management, advisor to Portugal’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education under Ministers Mariano Gago and Manuel Heitor, and member of the Environment & Sustainability Council at EDP Energias de Portugal. Presently, he is Professor MSO at Copenhagen Business School, Academic Fellow at Cornell University’s Institute for Healthy Futures, founder and president of Patient Innovation, co-founder of PPL Crowdfunding, president of the Open and User Innovation Society (OUI), counselor on Portugal’s National Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation (CNCTI), and member of the Economic and Social Council (CES).
His academic interests encompass open and user innovation, patient innovation, social and impact innovation, services operations management, artificial intelligence in innovation and operations, and technology strategy. Oliveira’s research has appeared in prestigious outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Responsible Innovation, Space Policy, Molecular Oncology, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Frontiers in Medicine, Journal of Change Management, Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, and NEJM Catalyst. Notable publications include “Bricolage as enacted sensemaking in emergent response groups” (Academy of Management Journal, 2026), “Unlocking innovation in healthcare: The case of the patient innovation platform” (California Management Review, 2022), “When patients become innovators” (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2019), and “Innovation by patients with rare diseases and chronic needs” (Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 2015). Through initiatives like Patient Innovation, he has significantly influenced healthcare innovation by empowering patients to share solutions.