Eduardo Marçal Grilo is a member of the trustees of Gulbenkian Foundation. He is also senior advisor to the rector of United Nations University. From 1995 to 1999 he was minister of education of Portugal. From 2004 to 2010, he was member of the Council of the United Nations University. He has written and co-authored several papers concerning materials engineering, education and aid for development. He holds a master's degree from the Imperial College of Science and Technology-University of London, United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. from the I.S.T.- Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. Mr. Grilo is a Fellow of several Salzburg Global Seminar Sessions and most recently attended the planning meeting for the Optimizing Talent series in 2010.