Maria João de Miranda Petronilho, born in 1974 in Mira, in the district of Coimbra, earned her degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1998 from the University of Beira Interior, in Covilhã. That same year, she began working at OGMA – Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal, in Alverca, as a military maintenance engineer, later transitioning into Production Engineering to develop a joint project with several Spanish companies, including Construcciones Aeronáuticas (CASA, now Airbus Spain).

As a result of this collaboration, and to take part in the launch of Airbus’s new A380 aircraft, she moved to Spain in 2003 to join the engineering team at the Toledo branch (Internacional de Composites SA) of Aernnova Aerospace Group (www.aernnova.com), a globally recognized Tier 1 aerospace supplier.

In 2009, she was appointed Production Engineering Director at the Toledo facility, focusing on composite structures for commercial aircraft, helicopters, and military planes. Her work was particularly relevant in the industrialization projects of the Airbus A380 tail and the Airbus A350 passenger doors.

In 2018, she was named Business Development Manager for the Composites division at Aernnova and also held responsibilities in the Group’s Commercial Strategy.

She currently serves as Aernnova VP Customer for one of the aerospace industry’s leading OEMs, the Brazilian company Embraer.

Throughout her career, Maria João was awarded 1st place in the MBA program at the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and, over the last four years, she has served as an associate professor of Aerospace Structural Materials in the Aerospace Engineering program at the University of Castilla-La Mancha.

Maria Petronilho has been Portugal’s World Advisor since May 2025.