Ricardo Baptista Leite
| The Honourable Ricardo Baptista Leite | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament for Lisbon, Portugal | |
| In office 01-07-2011 – Present | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ricardo Augustus Guerreiro Baptista Leite 31-05-1980 Toronto, Canada |
| Nationality | Portuguese-Canadian |
| Political party | PSD (Social Democratic Party) |
| Residence | Parede, Cascais, Portugal |
| Alma mater | Faculty of Medical Sciences, New University of Lisbon |
| Profession | Medical Doctor |
| Committees | Health / Economic Affairs and Public Investments / Population and Development |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Website | http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ricardo-baptista-leite/14/696/254 |
Ricardo Augustus Guerreiro Baptista Leite, MD, MP, PhD(c), (born 31 May 1980), is an elected Member of Parliament[1] in Portugal.
He is also the Scientific Coordinator for Public Health at the Catholic University of Portugal [2] and Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Medical Sciences - New University of Lisbon.[3]
Public speaker and Media commentator on current and economic affairs, health policy, public health, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
Medical consultant at a multinational company in the field of information technologies geared to healthcare and has also been co-investigator in national and international clinical trials.
PhD candidate in Public Health/Health Management at Maastricht University (Holland).[4]
He is also an elected member at Cascais City Hall Parliament,[5] since 9 October 2005 (second-term).
Early life
He was born in Toronto, Canada, the son of João Baptista Leite (Benguela, Angola) and Ana Maria Guerreiro Leite (Viseu, Portugal) and brother of Raquel Baptista Leite (Toronto, Canada). Leite was a distinguished student at school, having made it year after year on the honour roll. He studied from pre-school until 5th grade at Regina Mundi Catholic School (Toronto, Canada).
In 1991 he moved with his family to Portugal having lived since then in the Cascais area. He completed 6th grade at St. Dominic's International School (English-speaking school) (Polima, Portugal). After learning how to speak Portuguese, he enrolled at Colégio Marista de Carcavelos (Carcavelos, Portugal), where he was elected as President of the Student Council and completed his high-school education.
University years and career
Ricardo Baptista Leite obtained a 19/20 (95%) high school average academic score and enrolled at the Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (Faculty of Medical Sciences) of the New University of Lisbon (UNL) (Lisbon, Portugal), and obtained in 2004, a Medical degree (he scored a mark of 15,28 out of 20). At the University, Baptista Leite was known as an active member of the Students' Association and as a student representative in the Faculty Pedagogic Council. While studying, Leite was also a basketball athlete at the Associação Desportiva de Oeiras from 1994 to 2000, and pursued music education, mainly classical guitar.
In 2005, Baptista Leite completed a 1-year general medical residency program at Fernando Fonseca Hospital (Amadora, Portugal), following which he enrolled in a 5-year infectious diseases residency program. After completing the first year of the program at Coimbra Hospital Centre (Coimbra, Portugal), he moved back to Lisbon having completed the program at Egas Moniz Hospital (West Lisbon Hospital Centre) in July 2011. Leite is now awaiting the scheduling of the final exam that will confer the title of infectious diseases specialist. During the residency program, in Lisbon (Portugal), under the supervision of Dr. Kamal Mansinho and Dr. Ana Cláudia Miranda, he was part of the ID department medical staff, having been responsible for in-ward activity, ambulatory medicine, and emergency medicine. He was also appointed co-investigator in multiple clinical trials (National and International), authored/co-authored multiple publications and supported the university in-hospital staff and students. Within the program, Leite completed traineeships in Microbiology, Virology, Intensive care medicine and in Public Health at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (HIV, STI’s and Viral Hepatitis Programme - Copenhagen, Denmark).
Baptista Leite is currently the Scientific Coordinator for Public Health, within the Research Center of the Intituto de Ciências da Saúde (Institute for Health Sciences) at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Catholic University of Portugal) (Director: Professor Alexandre Castro Caldas).
He is also a member of the faculty with teaching and research responsibilities at the department of Microbiology and Parasitology (Director: Professor Teresa Marques) at the Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (Faculty of Medical Sciences) of the New University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal), since 2007.
As a medical consultant at a healthcare software development multinational, Baptista Leite is responsible for giving medical insight to health-oriented software developers and for doing research for new technological solutions for medical activities.
Since May 2013, Ricardo Baptista Leite has been associated with the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, at Maastricht University, as an external PhD candidate in the fields of public health and health management (Coordinator: Professor Helmut Brand).
Until having been elected as a M.P., Leite also served as a member of an international advisory board at Abbott Laboratories with the main task of supporting the company in its social responsibility actions directed towards the HIV community (mainly through contacts with policy makers, journalists and the general public to increase awareness of the long-term impacts of living with HIV and to fight against stigmatization).
After medical school, Ricardo Baptista Leite has pursued postgraduate education at the following institutions: Johns Hopkins University (MD, USA), Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA), IESE Business School (Madrid, Spain)/Harvard Kennedy School of Government (MA, USA), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY, USA), AESE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal), European Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain), New University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal), University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal) and Lusofona University (Lisbon, Portugal).
Political Activity
Baptista Leite was introduced into party politics in 2000 by Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. At the time he enrolled both in to the Social Democratic Party (Portugal) (PSD) and the Social Democratic Youth (JSD). Having left the Social Democratic Youth at the age-limit of 30, he was voted as a lifetime honorary member of the organization at their XXI National Convention in 2010. Leite is currently active within the Social Democratic Party (Portugal) as a member of the PSD National Advisory Council (as an M.P.) and of the National Committee for Reviewing the PSD Political Program (GENEPSD), mainly on issues associated with Healthcare[6] and Local Government.
He is an elected Member of Parliament[1] in Portugal, since 1 July 2011. Within the Parliament, he currently takes up the following positions: Effective Member of the Parliamentary Health Committee, Member of Economic Affairs and Public Investments Committee (substitute), Member of the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, and President of the Portugal/Canada Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Within Parliament, he is also Chair of the all-party Parliamentary HIV/AIDS work group.[7] With experience in HIV clinical treatment, public policy and humanitarian work, Baptista Leite maintains a breadth of knowledge and a unique perspective on current aspects of HIV/AIDS (and other ID) management and politics.
He is also an elected member of the Cascais City Hall Assembly,[5] since 9 October 2005 (second-term). In December 2001, he was elected member of São Domingos de Rana Town Hall Assembly, having completed the mandate in October 2005. He served as an elected member of the Lisbon Metropolitan Assembly from December 2005 to December 2009, and is currently the first substitute for the Social Democratic Party.
Having served many positions on local and district levels within the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), he was President of the Cascais Political Committee,[8] from 9 May 2009 to 9 June 2010. During this mandate, PSD won the European elections and in Cascais the party achieved its greatest majority in recent democratic history, having elected António D'Orey Capucho as Mayor (for his third and last term).[9]
During his years within the Social Democratic Youth, Baptista Leite served as Director of the National Studies Cabinet[10] and as member of local and district political committees. He also chaired two educational courses, 2005 and 2009, on local governance promoted by the Social Democratic Party (Portugal). In the 2009 course, Leite promoted a debate between two former Prime-Ministers' of Portugal, Francisco Pinto Balsemão and Mário Soares.[11]
Working for the community
Baptista Leite is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Portuguese non-governmental organization GAT (Group of Activists on HIV/AIDS treatments) and a member of the Advisory Board of the HIV/AIDS National Program within the Portuguese National Health Institute. He is also a member of the scientific committee of the Portuguese non-governmental organization SOS Hepatitis (Hepatitis patients association) and a member of the curators council of the Portuguese Kidney Foundation (Fundação Renal Portuguesa).
In the past, he has also served as a volunteer member of the Executive Board of a non-governmental organization (Champagnat Foundation) responsible for humanitarian missions in Africa and support for needy children in Portugal.
He was also a member of the healthcare policy work group at the Francisco Sá Carneiro Institute, at the time presided by Alexandre Relvas. By invitation from the Institutes' President, Carlos Carreiras, Baptista Leite has been a member of the Institutes' General Assembly, which is led by Portugals' former Prime-Minister, Francisco Pinto Balsemão.[12] and is now an elected member of the Institutes' Supervisory Board.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Assembleia da República - Ricardo Baptista Leite
- ↑ Instituto de Ciências de Saúde - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
- ↑ Instituto de Ciências de Saúde - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
- ↑ Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences - Maastricht University
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Assembleia Municipal de Cascais - 2009/2013
- ↑ Entrevista RBL à Revista Medicina Interna Hoje - Dezembro 2010
- ↑ Assembleia da República - VIH
- ↑ PSD/Cascais: Médico Ricardo Leite eleito para a comissão política concelhia - LUSA
- ↑ António Capucho vence em Cascais - Correio da Manhã
- ↑ Manual do Jovem Autarca - Gabinete de Estudos da JSD
- ↑ Mário Soares participa em iniciativa do PSD - Público
- ↑ Órgãos de Gestão do Instituto Francisco Sá Carneiro