The Business of Life with Dr King

The Global Executive's Journey: Pedro Pereira da Silva on Leadership and Life (Portugal)

• Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King • Season 2025 • Episode 41

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Meet Pedro Pererira da Silva, a Portuguese international executive whose extraordinary career spans four continents and multiple industries. In this captivating conversation, Pedro reveals the leadership principles that guided him through 25 years at Jeronimo Martins and subsequent roles as CEO of major retail operations in Poland, Russia, and Africa.

Da Silva’s  journey began with a brief stint in auditing before discovering his true calling in retail management. By age 29, he was managing 700 people on Madeira Island – what he calls "a school for life." His most significant achievement came in Poland, where he transformed a struggling retail chain into the country's second-largest company with 65,000 employees. This pattern of unlocking dynamic, sustainable growth would define his career across multiple geographies.

What stands out in Pedro Pererira da Silva’s approach is his people-first philosophy: "There is no right team. There are only people that are dedicated, engaged, aligned, motivated, and focused on the same basic principles and values." This mindset helped him navigate complex challenges, from managing 85,000 Russians to developing retail operations across eight African countries.

Now based in Portugal, da Silva has entered a new chapter that blends executive work with passion projects. He's developing "Passion Zone" in his hometown of Alcobaca, creating initiatives to promote Portuguese wine internationally, and building "Value for All" – an ambitious project making quality products accessible at affordable prices across Africa.

Pedro Pererira da Silva, also shares insights about BridgeWatt, his digital platform connecting companies with experienced advisors. Unlike traditional consultancy, BridgeWatt offers access to executives who've lived through real successes and failures. As he explains, "The consultant knows the models...the advisor knows what is failure, what is success."

Additionally, Pedro serves on the board of the Portuguese Network Council, which has grown from 80 to over 300 members across 50 countries during his tenure. This network connects influential Portuguese professionals worldwide through regional hubs and competence centers.

Throughout our conversation, Pedro Pererira da Silva's passion for meaningful connection and contribution shines through. His approach to this new phase of life embodies his personal philosophy: "I don't have available time today, but I use it in a more proper way...celebrating life every single day."

Join us for this inspiring discussion about global leadership, creating value, and Pedro's simple yet powerful mantra: "Whatever you do, try to be the best ever."

Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King

Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....


The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King

Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
1629 K St, NW #300,
Washington, DC 20006, USA,
+1-202-827-9762
DrKingSolutons@gmail.com
DrKingSolutions.com


Dr Ariel King:

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Business of Life. Today we have a very, very special guest, Mr Pedro Pero da Silva. Welcome, sir.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

Good morning, ariel, nice to see you. Thank you for being here and invite me to have this talk with you.

Dr Ariel King:

Thank you. I'm so happy that we finally have this time together. Could you please tell our audience more about yourself happy that we finally have this time together. Could you please?

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

tell our audience more about yourself. Well, my name is Pedro Silva. I'm Portuguese, I've been around the world. I'm finally and happily back to Portugal and my place now in Portugal. I have to say that I'm a proud husband and a proud father Married the same wife for the last 33 years and four children. Great wife, great children, great four children.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

And now I'm trying to be a bit self-executive after a quite intense journey in my professional life and that has been several years on corporate life. So now I'm basically trying to learn fast how to be known as an executive. I mean, which is not easy because I mean all my life I've been very intense executive and trying also to do several. I'm running several different projects on my own with some friends and some other people that are close to me. I'm also doing several advisory work around the world. I spent quite a nice time in a new startup that I joined two years ago called BridgeWatt that I can talk a little bit later on. That I can talk a little bit later on. And also I've been involved quite actively in the last two years and a half since I joined the board of directs of the Portuguese Network Council, which I'm part of the board. So also I can talk a little bit later because it's quite an important journey. And finally, I mean I try to spend as much as I can doing pleasure, which means basically a mix of leisure and a little bit of business, so which has been so far a good mix that I found out that word just quite recently, and so I try to play as much as I can. So even when I travel around the world, I mean always try to have a good mix, a good balance between leisure and a little bit of business.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

Before it was different. So that's basically the world. I mean always try to have a good mix, a good, good balance between leisure and little business. Before was different. So that's there. That's basically where I stand today. I mean I have a quite, quite intense um journey, incorporate the world. Uh, when I've been in several different geographies and different countries in the world, um, now is is is a bit even more intense, but differently. I love that. We all believe that after that, the same executive world, that now the life becomes a bit more boring and more slow. But I cannot. It's part of my DNA. So if I don't have much on the pipeline, I'm sure that next 10 seconds will be more than full pipeline. So that's about me. So I energy intense and yes, Living life on full speed.

Dr Ariel King:

Bravo, I really love it, you know. Can I ask, can you just give us a very short account? You've literally been all over the world Our audience doesn't know that and you've had so many various leadership positions all over the world and you've actually helped in that. Can you just give us an overview of some of that and then we can talk about what you're doing now, Because I think that that really affects what you're doing now and the success of what you're doing now.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

Yes, I can tell briefly about my journey and that, in fact, when I look back and try to to make a summary, all my life has been somehow luckily trying to unlock dynamic, sustainable growth in in big organizations and more than that, it has been always trying to support people to grow and develop dynamically, because I mean, I have been leading big organizations. I'm going to share in a minute and all of that you need basically the proper team and there is no right team. There are only people that are dedicated, that are engaged, that are aligned, that are motivated, that are refocused to have the same basic principles and values. That is quite important then. I mean, when we are aligned, then we can basically conquer the world. Just depends on how much you can somehow see on the medium-long term and you can somehow align the ones that are close to you to do the similar or the same genre. I mean, I started very, very early.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

So I'm Portuguese, I studied in Portugal, I did my degree in Portugal, economics. Then I started my short career. It was three months or four months in a hospital. I didn't complete that disease anymore. It was Arthur Anderson, but my short career was three months or four months in the audit, completing that disease and immortalization with Arthur Anderson. But I'm not controlling, I'm a creative person. So very quick, after a few weeks or a few months, I moved to one of them At that time the biggest was one of the important group in Portugal, that was Geronimo Martins and then I started as a major trainee.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

So I did basically all my career there during 25 years. So I was a trainee senior manager, director, and then I became a managing director when I was 29 or 30 years in Madeira Island, which was quite important. I mean school and training for me because I was basically alone on the island managing the second biggest company, 700 people. That was quite an important task at that age and it was really a very, very school for life. So it was not business for life or business for life. It was school for life Because basically I mean I learned how to live and basically depends on your mirror on day by day yes, and basically depends on your mirror on day by day yes. And then I was really. I was also involved in some operation in Brazil when I was there in Madeira, so I did some support there.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

But then I moved to Poland. I said Poland, how come the other part of Europe by that time was a different Poland still. So I moved there in January 2000, already 25 years ago. So it was basically a big company by that time, almost 600 stores and 10,000 people. So I became the managing director of the company or the CEO, and it was a travel company, so it was a big turnaround. So when I left after 10 years in that position it was already a big company with 65,000 people and not any more problematic but very profitable and becomes the biggest private business in that country and the second biggest company in the country. So it was really an interesting journey from the big turnaround, from the dynamic development and then basically conquer the leadership and be clearly faster, fast development and grow faster than any other. So it was really a great experience.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

But in the meantime I was also involved on when I became the responsible operation of the group I also developed, was in charge for developing the third geography, so we opened operations in Central America, in Colombia. It was also quite interesting experience, so from central eastern europe to central america. So I spent quite a lot of time doing that three years then, before you launched operation, learning, studying and analyzing the country. So today is also a big company today, is they? I guess they have already more than 1400, 1500400, 1,500 stars and become also quite a relevant player on that part of the world. And today the company that in Poland is really a massive company with doing more than 30 billion euros turnover and more than 3,500 stars.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

So I left the group after 25 years. So I was on that group 25 years. So I have quite interesting I mean invitations to go here, to go there. So I decided to accept one of the biggest ones or the challenged one or the most challenged that was in Russia. So I became the president of the third biggest retail in Russia. I mean, I had a great time in the times that it could be interacting in Russia. It was different times, so it was really an interesting company 3,500 stores, 85,000 Russians. It was a massive operation. So I really enjoyed a lot because it was really a unique experience. I can't write not a book, but a big, big story about that experience. And then I was there basically around a bit more than one year and then I decided to leave because I didn't want to be involved in some Russian technologies and then I keep going. So by that time I decided to to retreat to Britain and decide if I should come back to Portugal already after this intense journey. But I accepted one more interesting challenge. So I accepted to have a few details.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

But I went to go to Africa. So I went to Cape Town, so I became managing director of P-Campaign. By that time it was the second biggest retailer in Africa. So we have like more than 1,500, 1,600 stores, big stores, but many different business present in eight countries. So it was an incredible experience. I enjoy a lot Africa. It is, I mean, you really love it awaited Africa. So I was on the first party. I love it. So it was really really very, very intense. But I mean it was really a unique experience and even today I'm part of another company there and part of the board of directors, because I do believe that still a lot to be done in africa and I guess I also can try to unlock a little bit of the dynamic growth there.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

And then I came back to europe in the middle of the kovid. I mean family was partly part in our part in europe, so we decided to come in the middle of the COVID back to Europe. I still managed the first biggest group of health with more than 2,000 pharmacies in four countries between Poland, amsterdam. It was also quite interesting but a bit boring experience, I mean because health is not fast, we consume goods. It's a bit boring experience, I mean because I mean else is not fast moving, we consume goods. It's a bit different environment. And with COVID the framework was not also the best, the best interesting, exciting experience because a lot of Zooms, a lot of teams like today, and even so we managed to buy a company in Sweden.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

But I decided by that time that it was time to come back, to move the base to Portugal. So I didn't come back, but I have the base in Portugal now and I'm involved in several different things in the world and I'm trying to move ahead with several different projects that I had already for some time to put in place. So, yes, I mean I have to say that now I mean, come back to today is trying to find the proper balance between me executive, non-executive a lot of pleasure and trying to unlock a few other things. Then I have the pleasure to meet people like you, like, as we met two years ago, I believe in important forums. I mean then I have a bit more time for a few other things that I never had time in my life. So I don't have available time today, but I use it in a more proper way. I mean the way that I like to spend and choose to whom I spend the time and then to whom I cooperate, and so forth and so on.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

I mean always has been a happy life, Always surround with great people, a lot of people and celebrating life every single day.

Dr Ariel King:

This is really wonderful. I know that there are two main projects that or two main areas that you're doing now. Can you tell us more about the Portuguese Council and give us the proper name for that, what it does, and then, perhaps, after that bridge, what?

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

Let me divide. Basically, there are two or three different areas that I try to invest or to spend my time or to use my time today. One is several on projects. That one is still a project I'm trying to implement that is called Passion Zone. All my life has been about full of passion, so I decided to try to do a project in my hometown that is the capital of passion of Portugal and it's quite a big project that involves basically technology, history and put that under the entertainment framework.

Dr Ariel King:

Sorry, can you, please tell us the name of your hometown. Thank you.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

It's Alcubaza, which is basically, as the monastery, one of the seven wonders of Portugal. It's very close to where you can see the biggest wave of the world served, which was Nazaré, just 12 kilometers. So one hour north Lisbon, two hours south porto. So very central, very beautiful and surrounding the sea, mountains and, of course, like in portugal, very good food and very good wine. So not a bad place to live. So in the meantime, I also have another project I'm trying to run. I mean I I do believe that Portugal can be also one of the capitals of the wine experience. I mean, so far the Portuguese wine is not known as it should be, due to quality and due to all the history behind. So there's also another project that I'm trying to implement with several different things this is also quite big and can be also exported to the world and then a few other projects that are involved so far with Africa, and try to create a big project that is bringing value for all in Africa. We make access to quality at the lowest price possible to all African people in population. That, basically, is something that is for many, many years. So it takes a while to put the foundations together, but once you make it happen, then it can be quite interesting thing for, and then that's why I call that project Value for All.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

In the meantime, I mean several different roles. I mean one is being a non-executive in a big retailer in Africa, as I said before. So we are in 10 countries, 6,000 stores, and also in Europe and Sri Lanka and six countries in Africa. So I spent some time and I'm enjoying a lot this journey because it's very close to my heart and very close to what I left to be done in Africa. So I'm glad that I can somehow contribute for that development. And then several different areas of of advising, retail and few other things. But on top of that, there are two important things also on my, on my agenda that, as you mentioned, one is um, the portuguese network council.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

Now is bridge. What so rich, what is is is um is a digital platform that allows companies to access prestigious advisors around the world with the mission of fostering accelerated and sustainable sales growth. I mean the company was created with the aim of filling the market gap in professional services, simplifying the access of B2B companies of various sizes to high profile advisors and the access of experienced executives former CXOs of large companies to market where they can provide their advisory service and share their experience. This has been I mean, in fact, this is what they've been done all my life, that is, putting people in touch, putting people together and, within a not structured way and without any interest or any return, just put people together. So I found out that when I was invited by the founder he's my good friend if I want to join him and he said great, I mean, this is what I've been doing all my life is to help people, to meet people and make the bridge. So now we are making the bridge and you know what?

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

So BridgeWatt is basically, and what is really interesting is what we have brought with BridgeWatt. I mean, basically we have structured and simplified access to the market of experience. I mean, normally you have access to the market of consultancy, not to the market of experience, and that's basically a big difference between a consultant advisor, because the consultant knows the models, knows how to make a beautiful PowerPoint with animatics, dynamically and with some nice Excel numbers, and that's basically what we can have from consultancy and, of course, many, many times works properly. The advisor is a bit different, because the advisor knows what is failure, what is success and because he's advising, he means that he became he had quite a successful career. That's why we invite him to join us and basically he knows how to do wrong or to do well, and great that normally they do much more often well than wrong, yes, otherwise they didn't have success. But also we have made the flexible advisory boards available, so we don't need basically all of these complex process to have this part of the advisory board that goes through a different stage of alignment, this part of the advisory board that goes through a different stage of alignment and you can have basically in a more flexible, according and just to the needs of the companies. At the same time, we have created somehow what you call the fractional advisory Through the sale of XCXO days, meaning that you can have access by hours or by days and not by a term of three years or one year or two years, which is also very, very, very relevant, and the companies have been in fact, able to use that properly according to their needs, according to their resources as well, but also building at the same time so-called old-class business ecosystem. We have today more almost 20 nationalities with our advisors and they are covering more than 35 countries today and basically we are.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

I guess we are just in the beginning, because the model is quite interesting because it's basically, nobody can come to Bridgewater as to be someone recommended. So when someone comes to Bridgewater, it already brings so-called. What is priceless is the capital of trust, because basically you are going to buy someone that was already as winning, so we have a capital of trust ecosystem. That is really priceless because normally it saves time and money and it's normally is very, very efficient, and so basically that is all about Bridgewater. I mean, we are, I guess, in the very beginning. That makes me give me a lot of pleasure Again, not pleasure, but pleasure in this time to be able to, to, really to, to, to put together people with incredible track records, incredible stories and incredible experience, and and they don't want to spend all their time on the golf course, so basically they have some time to be, to be, to be used effectively in a few things that give them pleasure. And also the pleasure is to support companies to grow, to achieve growth, dynamic growth, and that's basically all about that.

Dr Ariel King:

So I don't know if I if I was speak too fast or a bit clear and well, it's so fascinating and uh to to to speak about a lifetime of putting people together and uh, even more importantly, taking challenges and um, making them into systems and and uh, um, people that work together all over the world is pretty amazing. I don't think there's any atmosphere or any place that you have not worked or had some kind of touch, you know, had some kind of influence all over the world, so it's really a pleasure to hear about all this. May I ask if someone would like to get in touch with you or what you're doing with either Bridgewater or with the Portuguese Council, or with your passion, right, your passion. What can they do? How can they get in touch with you?

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

How can they learn?

Dr Ariel King:

about more of what you're doing.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

You have my mobile, you have my email.

Dr Ariel King:

that's it Okay so should they get in touch with you?

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

I have all my track record, all my experience, which is only mine. I mean, it's not big, it's not small, it's mine. It's public in my LinkedIn, so I don't have any secrets. So, more than a pleasure. And at the same time, you asked us about the Portuguese Network Council, which is also something that I really enjoy and to try to help what I guess never was done in the history of our country.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

We realize that we have a quite important diaspora in the world. I mean, we have also a lot of immigrants from the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, but also not only by that time, so that we have the community's diaspora. But also, I guess 11, 12 years ago, was created by the president of the country that is, the honorary president of the Portuguese Network Council, the diaspora of Portugal. He created an organization that tried to put together the Portuguese that somehow are relevant with relevance, somehow silly, and all of them they don't have time, which means basically they are quite busy, what they are doing. That is my definition of what is an advisor of the Portuguese network council, and so I mean I also also, I was also invited a few years ago to join, like eight or or nine years ago, and two years and a half ago, the president of the executive, president of the diaspora. We have a board, so basically the honorary president is the president of the country and the honorary vice president is the minister of foreign affairs. Then we have a proper board with basically one president and four board members, 14 board members from all over the world, in portuguese and um, and basically I was invited to join also the board and and said listen, it was at the time that I was moving back to to portugal, put the base here and I was really looking forward to a bit more peace and less involvement and less media, less this, less that, to have less, not more. But it's okay, I don't mind to join, but if you believe, we have the same alignment to make this properly around the world. So after two years and a half we are by that time, 70 or 80 advisors or members and now we are more than 300.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

So we are present in more than 50 countries in 5 continents and there's been an amazing journey to find and to discover how many port trees around the world we have in very important positions, not only in management, not only in business, but in sports, in health, in culture, and all of them with quite important relevance in what they are doing and the impact that they have where they are. So we've been putting this together and I guess we are just and the impact that they have where they are. So we've been putting this together and I guess we are just in the beginning, because it's been interesting and amazing to discover all these incredible stories of success, I mean in all different fields, not just, as I said, not just about business, not just being in London or New York, but being in these five continents. Just recently, before that, we opened at the same time, like a year and a half ago, two years ago, we opened these regional hubs, meaning to centralize the agenda of this interaction between the members. So today we have 14 regional hubs in the world between the members. So today we have 14 regional hubs in the world and basically they are able to connect and to meet online, offline, in all these different regional hubs and, which has been also incredible, that they are much more close to the reality and also to look for the new members and also their agendas and they have some common objectives to discuss and so on. Not only that, but once we achieved 250 members last year in the summer we also created the so-called competence centers. So basically we create 13 competence centers from logistic, retail, health, sport, culture, esg and so on and also gives the chance now for the ones that have several interests in specific agribusiness and so far that they can basically discuss among themselves important topics or create webinars or create events. And it's amazing, it's a platform of sharing, sharing experience, trying to build with only three, as I put that in a very clear summary. That can be a bit more complex if you put this in in a nice powerpoint, but basically is to to take the best of portugal there, to bring the best from there to portugal and to the best in portugal to Portugal, and that's basically what we try to achieve in a very simple way. Putting this today 300, probably tomorrow 400, I don't know, there is no clear number. It's basically the mission is to identify and try to put together and create the platform for this exchange of ideas. So you have been present, ariel.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

In one of the initiatives is the Euro Africa Forum. Today is a forum that we do in July. It's already the eighth edition this year, 500 participants, always with two presidents Portugal and one president of another country from Africa. We have been with participants of more than eight, ten ministers and it's really already a summit, as you saw by yourself some time ago. So we also started last year the Euro Americas. We did that in December. It's also another important forum. So again, we're the same size.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

So we have also this motto that we try, whatever you do, try to be the best ever, so next one has to be the best ever so. It's very simple. The target and objective is very simple it's to be the best ever so. We don't need to define more KPIs because this simple sentence defines what is the expectation. So it's been really an amazing experience, very rewarded, because bringing back and try to give back from where we were born, I mean, and try to, and you can feel the same sense of proudness and pride when you put people together and try basically to do something pro bono for the country and for the community. So, yes, it's a huge pleasure to be part of it.

Dr Ariel King:

I want to thank you for our time together and you are the great connector of the world and also I want to thank you for being a mentor to me. I've learned so much from you in the last several years and it's really been an honor and a pleasure, and I love how you say that you know what's most important is to be the best, whatever it is. Make sure that you're the best at whatever you do.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

I mean you don't need to be the best, but at least if you put the bar, you try. So at least you know that probably you will not be the worst. It's already a big achievement thank you.

Dr Ariel King:

Thank you so much for being with us and I'm so grateful to have your time. If, within the next year or so, you have another chance to come on again, I would be so grateful, but if not, I'm so very grateful for this time and for our audience. Thank you so much for joining us. And and remember, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That's by the great philosopher Hillel, and I've added if not me, then who? Thank you so much for joining us.

Pedro Pererira da Silva:

Yeah, it was a big pleasure, thank you.