Bernardo Villa appointed CEO of Smart Portugal
Bernardo Villa was appointed CEO of the newly created Smart Portugal, Lda, reporting directly to Smart Europe. With a 21-year career linked to Mercedes-Benz Portugal, he was elected responsible for introducing Smart in our country, in 2001.
With a degree in Economics, Bernardo Villa began a professional career as a consultant, before joining Mercedes-Benz Portugal as a consultant for the dealer network.
He was responsible for Smart sales between 2001 and 2006, the year he was also responsible for creating the fleet department, contributing to the creation of a structure 100% dedicated to fleet customers.
At the end of 2007, take over Mercedes-Benz sales management, continuing to consolidate the dedication to fleets and contributing to the sales growth of the Mercedes-Benz brand by more than 25% in two years.
In 2011, with the objective of preparing Smart for the launch of the new generation of models, it returns to the brand with sales and marketing responsibility, bringing to Portugal the highest concentration of Smart in the world and several recognitions of the best market worldwide, surpassing the Four thousand units sold and making Portugal the fifth largest market in Europe.
As responsible in Portugal for the CASE project (Connected, Autonomus, Shared and Electric), Bernardo Villa prepared to prepare the dealer network for the challenges of electric mobility, contributing to a better perception that this new paradigm represents for sustainable cities. for the dealers of the future.
Smart Portugal, Lda is a subsidiary of Smart Europe, GMBH and is born from the joint venture between Geely, a Chinese company in the Automobile Industry with almost 25 years of existence, and Daimler. A joint venture aims to produce and market the new Smart generation, which is expected to start in 2023.