At a Lisbon lunch organised by the International Club of Portugal (ICPT) he revealed his incredible and often surprising story and gave a glimpse into the mind of a man who has single-handedly created Grupo Bel and turned it into an empire with scores of companies across many sectors employing 3,500.

When he was 18, Portuguese entrepreneur and founder of Grupo Bel, Marco Galinha, had an ambition to be the best he could be and thought he would dedicate himself to championship biking, more specifically All Terrain Biking (ATB) because that was what he wanted at the time and he wanted to become the best.

The compulsive serial entrepreneur wondered: “how can I achieve it?”. He studied the world champions in the sport and their habits, and discovered that whether a sportsman or an entrepreneur one can observe a lot from their career paths and what they did to get to the top.

After 12 months from starting to train as a competition cyclist he met and chatted to the champion cyclist Jérome Chiotti * (*A now retired French cyclist who gained prominence in mountain biking, securing the 1996 world title) in the Algarve and “something opened my eyes”.

“When I went to speak to him I felt a huge emptiness and thought how is it possible that this lad is the world champion. I recalled an English expression ‘brains not brawn’, an extremely important expression.

Recalling being with and speaking to the members of the ATB heroes of the national selection and wanting to be World Champion in ATB - there were the Atlanta Olympic Games coming up in 1996 - he thought: “That’s what I want - to be the world champion”.

“My colleagues from the selection said “Look, Marco, we don’t stand a fat cat’s chance in hell!” But we ended up in the final. So, you should never allow yourself, whether in sport or business, to be contaminated by negative naysayers.

A sense of responsibility

Despite this, Marco decided at 18 to give up the sport. “It was a difficult year. I had lost my father and had to pay for my studies myself. It was a very difficult year for Portugal which was in the midst of a banking crisis and recession when people thought “the world was about to end”. He started off in computing and managed to get some clients.

And such crises, he says, repeat throughout life, like Covid-19, but being Portuguese and understanding Portugal’s past (he has a huge silver caravel in his office in a reference to his admiration for the Discovers), he felt a sense of ambition and responsibility.

“We shouldn’t always be talking about our past, but as a people, we have a huge responsibility in the world. We’re not just any people and the Portuguese passport for me is one of the most important in the world.

“I have a huge sense of gratitude to society for many reasons but being Portuguese is an enormous advantage”, he reflects.

Never listen naysayers

Building a group like Grupo Bel was, he says was “so difficult, but so difficult, but it was possible”. It was only possible one way: by “never letting those negative and pessimistic voices dissuade me”.

“Today, we do unique things because this is the blood that we’ve got in our veins”, he said referring to the success Grupo Bel has had across various sectors, and yet he still believes Grupo Bel is “at the initial phases with a long way to go” even though it has 89 companies and 3,500 employees.

Marco believes having one company or scores of companies requires the same amount of work. It’s an idea I’ve heard from a female friend who had five children and ran the social department of a borough council. She used to say when I asked her “how do you do it all?” that it was a question of discipline, organisation, passion, dedication and learning how to take responsibility but delegate when necessary.

Author: Fernando Bento ;

“I think today, whether in politics or business, one must have a duty because this country can be a focus for peace, and this is very important for our entrepreneurs because Portugal today can have relations with various countries in the world, without conflicts or problems. But it’s important to know the blood in our veins, who we are and where we’ve come from, and never be ashamed of our past,” he ponders.

Forays into media

Marco Galinha started in this vein by deciding to buy the media company Global Media “for a song” in order to do something to help the country.

His first foray into media came with the purchase of the business daily Jornal Económico (since sold). The newspaper was practically bankrupt at the time. He then started to look at the Portuguese media and TV group Media Capital, but that would eventually end up in the hands of another major equally famous Portuguese entrepreneur, Mário Ferreira.

And, he is a great defender of journalism and journalists and thinks they should be wholly independent when it comes to their work, beyond the political affiliations and interference that some media groups suffer from.

“Global Media was the biggest sacrifice I’ve made to date, full of storms, so in the spirit of the navigators we took over that ‘aircraft carrier’ that is Diário de Notícias which had been in difficulty” and restructured it.

“I believe in the power of the media, and we have always fought for its independence. They say the media is the fourth estate in democracy. I think it's the first estate, and we have to have good journalists and independent journalism, and Portugal is very good in this respect. This is our essence, this is what I do in my companies, and it’s a constant battle to grow each and every step, despite the battles that are part and parcel of this”, he affirms.

“What I’d like share to you, whether CEOs, bank administrators, layers or MPs, is that you should have dignity. Another thing is that there are those who think Grupo Bel has assets of around €500 million, a debt of several million, but we have assets of €400 million, we’re a fairly solid and stable group with €700 million in sales. I feel a sense of responsibility and that has nothing to do with having money in the bank, because what we do has an impact on society because if I can improve Portugal 00,1% than my life’s mission is better and I want to bring dignity to journalism,” he stressed.

A biking fan with ambition

Apart from his business activities, Marco Galinha is still a keen practitioner in all-terrain biking winning the title of National Champion of ATB in 1995.

Born in 1977, as the seventh of eight children, the entrepreneur from Rio Maior, who admits he was “very shy” as a kid, had a love of bicycles from an early age.

“I was always a youth with an appetite to win but this ended up with me getting some good hidings at home since I had six bothers and sisters which made things complicated”, he said, adding “when we’re a little bit outside of the mould losing is difficult.”

Marco Galinha said he also broke the mould at school and university. “Today we call such kids hyperactive but my advice to parents as a father and grandfather is to keep calm and have a lot of patience with your kids and grandkids because it can be a sign of intelligence and drive”, he reflects.

“We often want to clip their wings and control them, but this could actually divert them from a promising career, and our system of education does not, in my opinion, prepare them for success, but more for failure because its easier to make cookie-cutter people.

Striving for the top is more difficult. It's much easier to be average or good but excellent is only within the reach of some. it’s a work that takes continuous effort and dedication, and today I recognise entrepreneurs and CEOs for whom I have a great admiration and sense of gratitude.”