After professional experiences in different sectors, Andreia Nobre became the general director of the real estate company TKA | The Key Advisors, in 2022, a position she currently holds. Through example, the leader aims to “help change stereotypes” and prove that women can be effective and influential leaders.”
There are several areas where Andreia Nobre has worked and the position of general director of the national real estate agency TKA | The Key Advisors is the latest addition to his impressive career. During her professional career, which spans more than two decades, the leader has truly proven that she is an authentic inspiring example for others.
Before rising to the top of TKA, Andreia had a “quite diverse” and “a little outside the norm” trajectory, as she describes it, because she not only held positions in various sectors but also “lived in 10 cities on 3 different continents”. Initially, in 1999, the director graduated in Mining and Georesources Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, and, that same year, she began working at Somincor, a firm that “explores the largest underground mines in Europe”, she says. In 2004, she completed an MBA (i.e., Master in Business Administration) in Management from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and, subsequently, worked in numerous positions and companies, from controller at AutoVision (Volkswagen Group) to advisor to the Secretary of State for Justice and from Secretary of State for Administrative Modernization to Senior Manager at the multinational company EY (Ernst & Young). In the latter firm, Andreia worked first in Lisbon and then in Dubai, specifically in the area of Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services. This was “perhaps the biggest challenge” of her career, she reveals, as it forced her “to spend 15 days away and then return home for 15 days”, and, with her children aged 5 and 7, her husband had to take over alone. their education and, thus, “he became the person they call when they get hurt.”
Back in Portugal, Andreia would completely change her field, venturing into ocean conservation, which took her, in 2019, to the Azores to lead a project by the Oceano Azul Foundation. Three years later, she returned to Lisbon and became general director of TKA, a position she currently holds, as well as mentoring at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the Lisbon MBA. Meanwhile, the leader is about to complete a Postgraduate Degree in Real Estate Management and Valuation, at the Higher Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG). In Andreia’s view, academic and professional paths are “both essential and inseparable, if we want to progress in our career and become more competent professionals”. On the one hand, “formal education” provides a “solid base of theoretical and practical knowledge”, something that is “extremely useful in all aspects of our lives”, noting that, in his case, “all the training he did left -the richest and, above all, more secure and confident in the decisions she makes.” On the other hand, as there are “aspects of leadership that are difficult to teach in an academic environment”, such as “interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, strategic vision or decision-making ability under pressure”, professional experience is what really helps to obtain them and consolidate them, he admits.
Therefore, “continuous personal development and practical experience also play a crucial role in leadership”, reiterates the director. Currently in the real estate industry, Andreia has been general director of TKA since 2022. Founded in 2005, TKA | The Key Advisors is a Portuguese company that provides “specialized consultancy services in real estate assets”, in the words of its leader. But what distinguishes this firm from others like it? For Andreia, the answer is “technical capacity, combined with customer service and the desire to continue learning and growing”, which allows her to “work with the best clients in a motivated way, helping with their growth” and that of the group itself. . According to Andreia, her entry into this firm began with a simple email from the career management consultancy Upper Side.
Although she “loved the Azores and even more the Azoreans”, the leader felt that “her commitment to the [Oceano Azul] Foundation project was already fulfilled” and that this professional opportunity came at “the right time, with the added bonus of allowing her to return home.” So, with “a desire for change and a little nervousness”, she applied for the position and ended up being selected.
For the leader, this process presented “two great doses of madness”: the first corresponding to the fact that she “dared to accept leading a company in an area in which she had no professional experience” and the second the fact that the “main shareholder” of the company “believe in your abilities, despite knowing that you had no experience professional” and the second the fact that the company’s “main shareholder” “believed in its capabilities, despite knowing that it had no experience in the area of real estate and valuations”. “The truth is that, 18 months later, we are both very happy to have taken the risk and the balance is frankly positive”, he emphasizes. As soon as she became leader of TKA, Andreia quickly saw the
“THE NEED TO MAKE SOME CHANGES, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL, THAT WOULD REFLECT OUR POSITIONING AND ALLOW US TO OPTIMIZE OUR WORK”.
According to the director, there were “five essential points” that underwent changes: the processes, to guarantee “complete transparency in the way [the firm] operates, whether for clients or suppliers”; the functions, in order to adjust the team “to the needs of its clients, ensuring that they deliver value with the best talent on the market”; the reports, to “facilitate the reading of all their content” and clarify the decisions made; the company’s image and website, which were updated and modernized; and the facilities, with the purpose of “continuing to grow, improving the working conditions of its team and those who visit them”.
This “first stage” of changes was “successfully completed”, says Andreia, and the company is already focused on a “second phase, which focuses on the development of new services”. One of these examples corresponds to a “kind of “everything you wanted to know” about a specific property”, a service aimed at “individuals who are thinking about buying or selling a property” and which provides them with an analysis “from different points of view” , both procedural and physical, including the market value of that specific property.
Thus, TKA aims to give clients “a comprehensive analysis of what is being bought or sold, providing suggestions for potential improvements to the asset and helping to make more conscious and informed decisions” that lead to “better investment decisions”, it indicates. In this way, Andreia believes that “any client who sells or buys a property will benefit from having an independent entity, like TKA, telling them the real value of that specific property” with its valuation, being “the cost of it, in almost all situations, fully compensated by the best business decision”. At the top of her career, the general director of TKA reveals that she “was never guided by big goals” and, therefore, is “more adept at the saying” of the philosopher and poet Agostinho da Silva: “Don’t make plans for life, that you can ruin the plans that life has for you.”
However, because she is a “perfectionist and loves challenges”, she presents “a permanent desire to overcome herself and do better” and, therefore, to “progress”, highlighting that “what kept moving her were the challenges she was lucky enough to encounter and hug along the way”, which made her grow and learn.
Despite being in a position still dominated by men, the leader never had her abilities questioned because she was a woman. For Andreia, “the question of whether or not she has the capacity came up more in the opportunities for which she applied and for which she was rejected”, revealing that, in these last situations, the recruiters opted for other women, “all of them with better CVs”. than yours, for that specific position, and therefore “cannot complain”.
For Andreia, any woman is capable of simultaneously “leading multiple projects” and “achieving professional success”. Achieving this “significant feat” not only “demonstrates exceptional leadership, organization and determination skills” but also “challenges stereotypes” and “entrenched prejudices that suggest that women cannot, should not, or cannot hold leadership positions or have successful careers.” -successful at the same time as they have families and a social life”, he argues. In turn, this deconstruction highlights the “importance of a society that values and promotes gender equality at all levels” and contributes to “awareness” and “changing attitudes”.
“I HOPE THAT MY EXAMPLE, AND OF SO MANY OTHER WOMEN, PROVE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE, BUT ALSO ILLUSTRATES HOW WOMEN CAN BE EFFECTIVE AND INFLUENTIAL LEADERS IN ANY FIELD”
With the missions of valuing women and “helping to change stereotypes”, Andreia is one of the members of the WIRE Portugal (Women in Real Estate) organization, chaired by Filipa Arantes Pedroso. According to the TKA leader, the “purpose” of this association is to “increase the visibility of women in the real estate and construction sector, through their greater representation at events and initiatives in the sector”, in order to “defend their interests” and generate “a community of active and reference participants”. In addition to WIRE Portugal, Andreia is “proudly part of” other organizations. She highlights Inspiring Girls Portugal, whose aim is to “inspire girls to achieve their aspirations by putting them in contact with professional women who are successful references in their area of activity”, in order to “show that there are numerous career options and professions that they can follow”. As general director of TKA, Andreia is an advocate of the idea that you can only be a successful leader “when you are an example” and that “takes work”. In order to achieve this goal, she reveals that it is necessary to have “an enormous capacity for work”, “a generous dose of empathy” – that is, “being able to put on the other person’s shoes” – and, finally, “a pinch of humility”, since it is “important to always bear in mind that nothing is done alone and that we won’t always be right”, arguing that “knowing how to listen to others and, if necessary, backing down and apologizing is […] the salt of the earth”.
“I BELIEVE THAT BEHIND A GREAT LEADER THERE IS ALWAYS A GREAT TEAM AND THAT ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER”
Interview with Andreia Nobre, Managing Director, in the magazine Liderança no Feminino, published on June 2nd, 2024.
