Cátia Carias

I first met Cátia while interviewing her for a position at a well-known management consulting firm. At the time, she was doing a PhD in Biotechnology, but we managed to persuade her in joining the firm.

Cátia’s progression was swift: she went from being a Business Analyst to a Senior Consultant in 3 years less than the typical consulting career path then went on to Insead, for her MBA (not before being fought over by both Insead and LBS).

In parallel, Cátia, Tiago Fernandes and myself founded off7, the company that would later become X&Y. During her entire MBA Cátia managed to continue to work at X&Y, while all her colleagues were actively pursuing career opportunities in the world’s most prestigious companies.

And I’m glad she did. Having Cátia at X&Y is both an honor and a testament to what we have achieved.