João Eduardo Gata

Partner

João Eduardo Gata is Partner at Lear since 2026. He has over 20 years of experience in competition economics and policy. Until recently, he held several senior roles at the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC), including Principal Economist, Chief Economist (and Acting Chief Economist), and Director of the Bureau of Economic Studies. Through these positions, he developed extensive experience in antitrust proceedings and competition enforcement, contributing to investigations across a wide range of sectors and advising the Authority both at strategic and case level. He was, until recently, principal economist at the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) Bureau of Economic Studies. Between October 2015 and December 2021, he was a principal economic advisor to the AdC Board. He was also the Director of the AdC’s Bureau of Economic Studies between August 2008 and June 2014, and Chief Economist or Acting Chief Economist between September 2007 and October 2015. Before that he worked as a senior economist in the AdC’s mergers and acquisitions department.

Between 2006 and 2007, he served as Director-General in the Portuguese Ministry for Environmental Affairs. He was an economics faculty member at the University of Aveiro in Portugal between 2000 and 2004, at the Instituto Superior de Gestão, a private business school in Lisbon, from 1997 until 2000, and at the University of York in the UK, between 1994 and 1997.

He holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon, a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota/USA, where he also did graduate work in mathematics and computer science, and a Post Graduate Diploma in EU Competition Law from Kings College/University of London. He also taught economics courses at the University of Minnesota for several years and taught master level courses in economic regulation and in competition economics in Portugal.

He is a member of the academic research unit UECE/ISEG/University of Lisbon. He has published several papers in refereed international journals, such as Public Choice, European Review of Business Economics, etc. He was a Fulbright Scholar during his PhD in the USA and also the recipient of a NATO Scholarship. He speaks Portuguese and English.