Manuel Sebastião is member of the board of directors of REN since 2015. Prior to that, he was appointed president of the Portuguese Competition Authority in March 2008 for a term of five years. Prior to this appointment, he was a member of the board of directors of the Portuguese Central Bank from 2000 to 2008, having joined the institution as a staff member in 1986. He was a member of the board of the Portuguese Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority from 1998 to 2000, a member of the board of directors of the state-owned bank Banco de Fomento e Exterior from 1992 to 1996, and an economist with the International Monetary Fund from 1988 to 1992. He has been a lecturer in economics and finance at various Lisbon universities during his career.
Manuel has an undergraduate degree from the School of Economics, Technical University of Lisbon in 1973, a doctorate 3ème cycle from University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne in 1978, and a PhD in economics from Columbia University in New York in 1986. He was born in Luanda, Angola, in 1949.