Guilherme Vara holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, with specialization in Urban Planning and Systems, from the prestigious Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) at the University of Lisbon. Guilherme produced a master’s thesis, graded 19/20, the highest in his specialization since the course reformulation. This exceptional achievement underscores his academic excellence and dedication to his field of study. During his master’s thesis, Guilherme produced two scientific papers, in ISI/Web of Science peer-reviewed Q1 journals (one under the last round of revisions). For his master’s thesis, Guilherme analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance and efficiency of Portuguese public hospitals, seeking to improve the methods used for it. He utilized a state-of-the-art benchmarking approach to analyse healthcare performance, bringing several innovations to the literature. Guilherme's work has earned recognition in the field, leading to his collaboration on a third paper with his PhD supervisors and the respected researcher Prof. Salvatore Greco, renowned in the field of decision science (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D0xofHMAAAAJ&hl=en). This upcoming paper, building upon the methodology Guilherme refined during his master's thesis, will integrate multi-criteria decision analysis techniques. The application of this methodology will aim to enhance the Environmental Performance Index, aligning with Guilherme's broader PhD research objectives. During his academic journey, Guilherme gained practical experience related to his field by working as an intern and later as a part-time employee at a civil engineering firm, during his master’s degree. Currently, he is employed at a consulting firm, where he applies his expertise in data analysis, optimization, and management. Guilherme has also demonstrated a passion for teaching and tutoring, having tutored over 20 students in various subjects such as mathematics, statistics, and management. He has also been invited as a teacher assistant in two graduate-level courses, Data Analysis and Systems' Evaluation (MSc) and Statistical Modelling (PhD), where he guided students on practical classes and project assignments. Furthermore, Guilherme has achieved a remarkable level of proficiency in English, having obtained a C2 proficiency level. His diverse background, which includes academic excellence, hands-on expertise, programming expertise, teaching and mentoring skills, and linguistic proficiency, coupled with his ability to adapt to new situations, make him an asset to any organization or team. Guilherme’s main area of interest centres around innovative techniques to construct composite indicators to evaluate and improve the performance of complex systems.