She was born in France, where she spent the first 15 years of her life, but if you ask her, she says she’s from Vidago. Isabel Macedo thought her stay at INESC would be just a short internship, but 22 years have passed. Now, as the manager of the Management Support Service, she ended up “really enjoying this” – and it shows.
Sometimes luck appears in newspapers; in this case, it happened in 2003. Amid pages portraying a “skint” country that Durão Barroso wanted to dress up, and the fallout from a summit at Lajes base, a classified ad presented a professional internship with barely any explanation – not even stating where it would take place. After applying, Isabel Macedo learned she had been selected for a test and discovered where she was expected to start – she even had to ask the caller to spell it out: I-N-E-S-C
That was over 20 years ago; now, there’s little left that needs spelling out. Isabel Macedo is the manager of the Management Support Service at INESC TEC. The years have been busy: from direct support to administrative activities to managing day-to-day processes and information in an institution that has thrived for decades, she has spent many years shaping and speaking the language of INESC TEC. Does she ever get tired? “No, because I really enjoy this,” she replied, with a smile she tried to hide.
When she finished her degree in International Relations at the University of Minho and spotted that little ad in the newspaper, she envisioned a different horizon: working in a large company with sophisticated information systems and well-designed processes. It was hard to predict that the test she would take at INESC (the name she looked up using her “ADSL connection”) would be the prologue to a story that keeps adding chapters.
“It’s remarkable: I don’t remember much from five years ago; or even last year. But I remember perfectly something that happened over 20 years ago. I had just finished my degree, and my goal was to get a position in Porto, because I thought that could be a good place to apply for other jobs. At the time, I thought the role was temporary,” she recalled. It proved to be far from that.
Speaking INESC
When she arrived at INESC, she found over 100 candidates interested in the position. “Luckily, I passed all hiring stages and stayed.” And the timing was perfect. The Institute needed help with the overall coordination of the Information and Logistics Department (DIL, a service that combined accounting, management control, human resources, etc.). Isabel was asked to explain the “ABCs” of INESC TEC: her first major challenge was to prepare the institution’s welcome manual.
After the “spelling”, she was ready to write the first sentences. During that process, Graça Barbosa (now a member of the Board of Directors) played an invaluable role. She launched the hiring procedure, hired Isabel, and oversaw her onboarding. “With every task I present to her, I know I’ll receive input that will help me better understand INESC and improve the way I do things,” she explained. She recalled hours spent side by side, “absorbing” the dynamics of the complex and intricate structure of the Institute.
“The service welcomed close to 18 people. My first day was incredible. I was the youngest in the team, and Graça helped me through those first times. I think that even today I know INESC TEC that well because I had someone so dedicated and so close, with a tremendous work ethic. I knew she spent hours talking to me, and that she would continue working even after I left”.
Isabel mentioned that she was quite lucky: preparing the welcome manual turned out to be the best way to get to know the organisation, as it gave her a chance to speak with virtually all the key players. The DIL that Isabel joined in 2003 has long since been disbanded: the way the institution was conceived 20 years ago is very different from today. In 2012, the expansion was cemented and the building doubled in size. INESC Porto dropped the “Porto” in 2015 and embraced “TEC”. And while the dimension can sometimes “dehumanise,” the truth is that “even so, the institution has managed to stay a little more human.”
The right axis: talent, creativity, and humanism
Isabel was there, witnessing it all. She has spent 22 years talking about INESC TEC. She recently changed roles, and her duties now extend to supervising the integrated management of information and encouraging continuous improvement in business processes. The young graduate who once dreamed of the corporate world stayed on. Isabel’s explanation is simple: yes, the cross-cutting nature of the tasks helps, as does observing the evolution she has witnessed while tackling various challenges – 18 years supporting the administration can help one get a very accurate picture of an institution’s development. But what makes her stay is even simpler: two decades have flown by with the right people by her side and a sense of duty. She mentioned how people trusted her, namely former and current Board members, like Mário Jorge Leitão, José Manuel Mendonça, Gabriel David, and João Claro; and she highlighted the role of Paula Faria, a colleague who “allowed me to improve quite a lot.”
“Here I met people with immense talent and creativity, who are quite humane and nurture a sense of cooperation that is very hard to find elsewhere, as well as a sense of purpose: giving something back to society. Since the moment I joined INESC TEC, I feel that people here matter,” she emphasised. She gave her own personal example: “I was able to study while working; I did a master’s and an MBA, and the institution supported me to the fullest when I became a mother.”
The only thing missing is time to “declutter” – but you can’t have it all. In the spirit of “frustrated archivists”, Isabel Macedo would gladly spend more time managing archives (a passion that meets her responsibilities). She admitted that this task is “not very sexy”, so she tends to postpone it: “I usually say that when my faculties start to decline (and if the institution would still want me around), I wouldn’t mind having more time for that. I do a lot of it at home – much to my family’s despair.”
Between France and Trás-os-Montes, Britcom
INESC TEC has changed; and so has Isabel. She said she is now more “engineer-like and precise,” almost by contagion. Happy never to have encountered anything resembling routine at INESC TEC – she has never analysed two identical processes -, she always finds “time” throughout the day to “reflect, advance ideas, and think of solutions.” Yet, the unobstructed view from the fourth-floor office at the Asprela Campus (overlooking the daily commute on Circunvalação) can’t compare to the scenery she was used to when she arrived in Portugal from France, where she spent her first 15 years.
It’s barely noticeable, and only a very attentive person would catch a glimpse of her escape to the years when she didn’t know Vidago, her “favourite place.” “I usually say I’m from Vidago when people ask me where I come from; but I only lived there three years, during high school and before going to college,” She was born in Lons-le-Saunier, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France, and grew up in Poligny; but when it comes to “recharge her batteries”, she always returns to Trás-os-Montes – land of “people with kind hearts” – and the Vidago Palace park. Always “old-fashioned” in her hobbies, surrounded by books and plants, she prefers to spend her evenings watching the Britcom shows on TV.
Within a safe space mapped between France, Vidago, Minho, and Porto, Isabel now lives on the outskirts of the city; INESC TEC has largely guided her actions over these years. When comparing 2003 and 2025, Isabel noticed something similar: “times are not very easy.” She found certainty at INESC TEC in both moments: in her first trip to the auditorium, where she joined the other 100 candidates, and 22 years later (curiously, in the same room where she took the test): “Here, people nurture the sense that you can always do better and improve. In very uncertain times, I am part of an institution that believes science is a way to improve people’s lives. I think that is a very important mission.” Not bad for a little ad in the newspaper.
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