José Luís de Sales Marques has been President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM) since 1 January 2002. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, and Cantonese.
Born in 1955, Sales Marques is a Portuguese national who dreamed about becoming a professional photographer, but given the uncertain nature of such a profession, he instead studied economics, graduating from the University of Porto in 1982. He later received a master’s degree in European Studies in 2003. His thesis focused on China-EU relations.
Sales Marques has worked for the Macao government since 1983. By 1987, he became the department head of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and was responsible for licensing and product development. In the meantime, he was also head of special projects at MGTO in charge of organising special events such as the International Music Festival.
Sales Marques became Deputy Director of the MGTO in 1989. His responsibilities then extended to supervising operations of the former Hotel School, the predecessor of the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT).
From 1993 to 2001, he was President of Leal Senado (City Hall), Macao’s most historic institution. He also served as Chairman of the Macao Environmental Council between 1998 and 2000 and was elected a member of the selection committee for the election of the special administrative region’s first chief executive.
In 2003, IEEM launched Macao’s first creative industries’ platform, Creative Macau–Centre for Creative Industries. Sales Marques was later appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Industries Fund of the Macao SAR Government in 2013.
Sales Marques serves on the boards of several non-profit organisations. He is the president of the Council of Macanese Communities and a member of the Board of the Portuguese School Foundation and of the Board of Trustees of the Rui Cunha Foundation.
He also dedicates his time and experience to developing cultural and creative industries in Macao and is a committed researcher and intellectual of international relations, particularly in the field of China-EU relations.
Since March 2016, Sales Marques has been Vice-President of the Maritime Silk Road Association which he believes “will open the door for new investment opportunities and a strong sense of entrepreneurship”.
