Born in Calheta municipality, Avelino Farinha studied for 5 years at the Dehoniano Seminary, in Funchal, followed by 2 more years in Coimbra. In 1979, he began his professional activity as a topographer, which later led him to collaborate at the City Council of Calheta.

At just 20 years old, he founded the “Avelino Farinha & Agrela, Lda.” construction company that came to be the AFA Group. Other companies followed, in various fields of activity, such as civil construction, public works and complementary activities, hotels, real estate, waste treatment and the environment, executive aviation, road concessions and the media.

Avelino Farinha has always played an important civic and social activity in the municipality where he was born, having participated in the creation and management of various sports and recreational associations, such as the tennis club, the naval club and the “Estrela da Calheta Futebol Clube”. He became president of the ASSICOM’s general assembly in 2010, a role he still holds.

In 1992, Avelino Farinha was distinguished with the “Estrelícia Dourada” award and, in 2012, he was awarded the “Cordão Autonómico de Bons Serviços”, for his valuable contributions for the Autonomous Region of Madeira as an entrepreneur in various sectors of economic activity, in particularly in civil construction and public works.

He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AFA Group (AFA, SGPS, S.A.) and of the companies AFAVIAS, S.A., AFA Imobiliária (Investmad S.A.), of which he is the main shareholder. His companies are active in Madeira Island, the Azores and mainland Portugal, and also in Africa, particularly in Angola.

Currently, Avelino Farinha has been working to reorganize the group of companies and their respective business lines.

Roberto Santa Clara began his career in 1996 as the Marketing Director of Empresa de Cervejas da Madeira, where he also managed teams in the Azores and Cape Verde while implementing several marketing and branding campaigns for recognized products.

In 2004, Roberto entered the airport industry with a progressive trajectory, first as a Member of the Management Committee of ANAM, then as Deputy Director of Madeira Airport, managed by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, and later as Deputy Director of Lisbon Airport until June 2015. That year, Roberto Santa Clara accepted the challenge to join the Madeira Promotion Bureau as the Executive Director, leading the promotion of Madeira Island as a destination until mid-2019. In this role, he led a team that achieved the much-desired concentration of Madeira Island's tourism promotion under a single entity. Notably, the work done to reposition the destination's image aimed to retain existing markets while reaching a younger, more active target audience and seeking diversification in markets such as the United States.

In October 2019, he returned to the ANA Group. In February 2020, he became the Director of Madeira Airport, a role characterized by proactive national management and effective response during the pandemic. Under his leadership, the first base of a low-cost airline on Madeira Island, Ryanair, was established, as well as the first direct flight between Madeira Island and the USA (New York JFK). Additionally, there was significant growth in operations for Wizz Air and EasyJet at Madeira Airport, achieving record traffic performances and notable improvements in their management KPIs.

With a background in Marketing and Advertising, Roberto Santa Clara is recognized for his extensive experience managing large organizations and market-leading companies, specifically in the airport, tourism, travel, and consumer goods sectors.

His strong abilities in business development, international relations, cooperation, and strategic planning define Roberto Santa Clara's profile, marked by his exceptional management and visionary skills and his proven leadership and team management capabilities.

Ricardo J. Farinha is, since July 2017, responsible for the supervision, integration and alignment of Savoy Signature’s communication, marketing and sales areas.

Prior to undertaking into the hospitality business, Ricardo specialized in project finance for the energy, petrochemical and infrastructure businesses in Latin America, the USA and Canada, while at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, in New York; and acquired experience in public-private partnerships (PPP), in southern Europe and the Americas, as a senior technical analyst for financiers and investors, while collaborating with AECOM's PPP consultancy team in New York and Paris.

At the beginning of his professional career Ricardo developed a model for revenue and traffic analysis, as an analyst in the management control department of Air France, in Paris; and was an assistant to institutional clients in Latin America in investment banking in New York.

Savoy Signature's CCO has a degree and a master's degree in Civil Engineering, with a specialization in Transport and Urban Planning from Instituto Superior Técnico. He also has academic training in Public-Private Partnerships, by the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, in Paris, and completed an MBA with a specialization in Accounting and Real Estate Markets, at Columbia Business School, in New York.

In addition to his responsibilities at Savoy Signature, Ricardo also works in the AFA Group's strategy and business development department, concentrating his efforts in the marketing and corporate development areas for most of the group's companies.

Bruno Freitas leads Savoy Signature's financial area's supervision, integration and alignment.

In his roles at Savoy Signature, Bruno is in charge of supervising the financial department. In this capacity, he is responsible for making the most relevant financial management decisions, namely, identifying strengths and weaknesses and implementing corrective actions.

Part of the AFA/Savoy Signature Group since 2014, previously Bruno was a member and president of Madeira's Tourism Promotion Association, in which he currently is president of the fiscal council. From 2007 to 2014, Bruno has served as Chairman of the Directors Board for the Ports of Madeira and Regional Director for Madeira Island’s Tourism services. He has also served as Technical Adviser to the Regional Secretary for Tourism and Transports, in the Transports sector.

With a consolidated path in the public sector, it was as an accounting technician and commercial manager in banking entities that Bruno started his professional career, later becoming a financial manager, administrative and financial director, and senior accountant for several private companies.

Throughout his career, Savoy Signature’s CEO has been coach in the area of ​​accounting, taxation, and business organization and management, consultant in investment projects for several companies in the industrial and commercial sector, and guest lecturer in several seminars related to tourism and transports.

Bachelor in Accounting and Business Administration, he completed a degree in Management Control, both from Coimbra Business School.

Post-graduated in Financial and Accounting-Tax Management from the School of Management and Business of the University Autónoma of Lisbon (Executive MBA), Bruno specialized in the areas of management, public management, audit and internal control, accountability and financial responsibilities, as well as Cruise Management, at the Short Sea Shipping School, in Barcelona.

Ricardo Nascimento has become Savoy Signature’s Chief Operating Officer in March 2021, where he supervises the Executive Committee on a day-to-day basis for the operational functions of the hospitality business.

Previously, Ricardo served as director of Saccharum hotel, from August 2016 to January 2020, when he became advisor to the group's management.

Savoy Signature’s COO was also the general director for the Muthu Raga Madeira Hotel where, with an interruption to perform the functions of commercial director of Golden Residence Hotel, he had already been the commercial and financial director.

He has administrated a couple of companies in Madeira Island having one of his first contacts with the corporate world been, precisely, in the Savoy group, renamed Savoy Signature. Initiated as an F&B assistant, he later became assistant director, and commercial and financial director.

With a degree in Hotel Management from the University of Algarve - School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism, Ricardo was enrolled in the ITM Semmering (International College of Tourism and Management), in Austria, and has gradually complemented his basic scholarship with several training and executive courses, namely in Tourism and Hotel Management, and Luxury Tourism Management, at ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management, in Lisbon, and in Touristic and Hotel Management, by 2010/2011.

Following her previous position as assistant to the Savoy Signature’s administration, Noélia Reis has been, since 2016, board advisor, having within the Executive Committee the responsibility of Human Resources and Purchasing. In this capacity, Noélia supervises, on one hand, the personnel management and labor relations and policies of the entire Savoy Signature and, on the other hand, has a focus on policies with suppliers, on the implementation and control of internal decision-making processes. purchasing and implementing stock management models.

Noélia's career and personal journey merge with Savoy Signature’s legacy itself. At only 15 years old, the Board Advisor at Savoy Signature was introduced to the reality of the group, in the Onda Azul restaurant, under a summer internship program. Not long afterwards, she became receptionist at Estalagem Onda Azul, which is currently the Calheta Beach hotel, where she shortly after became head of reception. Noélia has held these roles until 2015, rising to the aforementioned position of Savoy Signature’s Assistant to the Administration, which overlapped with Saccharum’s opening.

Noélia has accompanied the construction and edification of the group's hotels, from the remote times of Calheta Beach, the Saccharum foundations and more recently the works for the Savoy Palace and the birth of NEXT.

Nuno Antunes has been Board Advisor for Savoy Signature since January 2020, directly advising the CCO and Savoy Signature in formulating objectives, planning and initiating projects in the sales and marketing area. In addition, Nuno oversees the entire Savoy Vacation Club operational and commercial management and also holds direct leadership in the areas of revenue management, reservations, reputation management, innovation, sustainability and public relations, and billing for the entire Savoy Signature universe. He has joined the group in 2017, for the position of director of corporate and strategic development. The Board Advisor acquired his professional know-how in renowned companies, such as Unlock Boutique Hotels, Tours For You Events, Bairro Alto Hotel and Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort. In this last group, Nuno remained from 2001 until 2011, having started his journey as a F&B cost controller and later ascending to deputy sales director. In between, he held the positions of sales manager, sales coordinator and F&B assistant manager. Graduated in Tourism and Hotel Management, from the International University - ISPI, Nuno also has an executive master in Hospitality Management, from Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies, in collaboration with EGE - Atlantic Business School (UCP) as well as diverse training in many of the areas he leads today, including The Future of Innovation, The Leading Hotels of the World (Training on Sales), Revenue Management by Ideas, Quality and Excellence in Services and Emotional Intelligence.