Before taking up his current position, Mr. Aguiar Machado was Director-General for Maritime Policy and Fisheries at the European Commission, Brussels, since 2015. From 2014 to August 2015, he served as Director-General of Mobility and Transport at the European Commission. He has 16 years of experience working on trade policy and external relations, where he served as Deputy Director-General at the Directorate-General for Trade and Deputy Director-General at the Directorate-General for External Relations at the European Commission. Mr Aguiar Machado is Portuguese; he studied economics both in Lisbon and at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium.