Biography
Hélder is a Partner at RBB Economics and Full Professor of Economics at the School of Economics and Management of the University of Porto (FEP). With more than two decades of experience in competition economics and regulation, he has advised a wide range of private and public sector organisations.
Before joining RBB Economics in 2025, he was Senior Vice President at Compass Lexecon and Head of its Lisbon office. He also served as a Member of the Board of ANACOM, the Portuguese Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Postal Services, from 2012 to 2017, and as a consultant to the Board of the Portuguese Competition Authority between 2007 and 2011. He is recognised as a recommended expert in the Who’s Who Legal directory of competition economists.
His practice covers a broad range of competition matters, with particular expertise in merger control, Article 101 and Article 102 cases, and cartel damages litigation. He has played a key role in several high-profile proceedings, including follow-on damages claims in Portugal related to the trucks and monoblocs cartels. He has provided expert testimony before competition authorities and has extensive experience appearing before Portugal’s Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court, including in damages litigation.
His academic research focuses on industrial organisation, competition policy and regulation. His work has been published in leading international journals, including The Economic Journal, the RAND Journal of Economics, the European Economic Review, the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, the Journal of Industrial Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization.
He has received several distinctions for his academic contributions, including the International Journal of Industrial Organization Best Paper Award in 2006 and 2015, and the Industrial Organization Society’s Best Paper/Younger Scholar Award in 2005.
Throughout his academic career, he has held positions at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Università Bocconi and the Institut d’Économie Industrielle at the University of Toulouse. He also served as Vice-Rector for Relations with Firms, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Porto and as President of the Board of Directors of UPTEC, the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto, between 2018 and 2019.
He holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute.