After ten years as a lawyer in two leading Portuguese law firms, Rui Manuel da Costa Ramalhal was invited to be head of the legal department at José de Mello Saúde in December 2003. The group currently manages nine hospitals, two of them in public-private partnerships, one institute and six clinics.

Part of its 7,000 highly skilled staff, Ramalhal internalises the core of the company’s legal activities, including compliance, major corporate and governance matters and ongoing legal support to the clinical units, as well as preparing the department for the company’s growth that has taken place in the last few years. Ramalhal manages 12 lawyers to coordinate all legal work of the company. Regarding the aforementioned, he is proud of the way he and his team have achieved their goals, which he states were ‘very important in the company’s growth strategy’.

Ramalhal was central to the sale of Dr. Campos Costa, an imagology operation, as well as assisting on the acquisition of Hospital Cuf Santarém. A clear business-affecter, he also presided over real estate transactions related to the construction of the new Hospital Cuf TejO, and the new building of hospital Cuf Descobertas.