"Start by doing what's necessary;
then do what's possible;
and suddenly you are doing the impossible. "
Saint Francis Assisi
An Unorthodox Career
for an
Atypical Profile
Originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Paulo MOURA has built an extensive international career. He moved to France in 2013 as part of his company's expansion. Today, this Franco-Brazilian is widely recognized as an international expert in Human Smart Cities, local economic development, and innovation valorization. Paulo describes his journey as unconventional, driven entirely by his passion.
His passion extends to innovation, creativity, and exploration, as well as fostering connections and meaningful relationships. Paulo Moura has navigated through various realms, including education, research, business, industry, and finance. He firmly believes that innovation stems from the convergence of diverse disciplines and domains.
Paulo advocates that authentic progress emerges from blending diverse ideas and perspectives. His vision for creating equitable, smarter, more connected, and vibrant communities relies on the harmonious interplay between various fields. He believes that prosperity hinges on the value added through innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
Paulo Moura is Buildings, Infrastructure & Transaction Advisory Practice Leader at Applus+, specializing in the intersection of infrastructure, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, resilience, and local economic development. His work focuses on helping governments, investors, developers, and asset owners transform buildings and infrastructure into intelligent, resilient, and value-generating ecosystems.
His research and professional work are anchored in FIRST (Framework for Infrastructure, Resilience & Systemic Transformation), a conceptual framework he developed to address the growing interdependencies between infrastructure, buildings, energy, mobility, data, governance, and territorial development. FIRST promotes a system-of-systems perspective, providing a foundation for understanding how resilience, performance, and sustainable growth emerge from the effective orchestration of interconnected assets, stakeholders, and institutions.
With more than 20 years of international experience in advisory, strategic consulting, innovation, fundraising, and operational leadership, Paulo has led complex transformation initiatives across Europe, North and Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. His expertise spans infrastructure advisory, transaction support, digital transformation, smart cities, resilience engineering, governance frameworks, and AI-enabled decision-making.
Prior to his current role, Paulo served as Deputy Director of Innovation and Partnerships at Université Côte d’Azur’s Institut Méditerranéen du Risque, de l’Environnement et du Développement Durable (IMREDD), where he led initiatives in mobility, resilience, data governance, and local economic development. He also chaired the “Territoires & Navettes Autonomes” Chair, co-founded the “Atelier Expérimental d’Urbanisme,” and founded The Security Design Lab (SDL), an international platform fostering collaboration in cybersecurity across academia, industry, and government.
Paulo currently serves as a member of the Scientific Council of the Alliance pour la Décarbonation de la Route, contributing to the advancement of sustainable mobility and infrastructure decarbonization strategies. He is also an active contributor to the MITI (Markets, Innovation & Technology Institute) ecosystem, promoting interdisciplinary approaches to cybersecurity and serves as Visiting Researcher at CePIL (Centro de Pesquisa em Inovação em Iluminação Pública) within NIPE – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), where he contributes to research on public infrastructure innovation, territorial resilience, digital transformation, and local economic development.
Throughout his career, Paulo has focused on transforming innovation into tangible territorial impact through strategic partnerships, technology deployment, and infrastructure-led economic development. His work includes major initiatives in urban resilience, smart cities, sustainable mobility, cybersecurity, and regional development.
Paulo holds a PhD in Economics from Université Côte d’Azur/CNRS-GREDEG and an MSc in Engineering for Smart Cities from IMREDD. He also completed advanced studies in finance, strategic planning, and law at PUC-SP and FGV-RJ.