Meet Linda Pereira, Senior Partner and CEO of the L&I Communications Group.

Linda Pereira is the senior partner and CEO of the L&I Communications Group. In addition to her long and respected career as one of the most influential voices in the Meeting Industry, she is also Executive Director of CPL Events. In 2000, inspired by Heidi Richards and by WECAI, Linda realized that her expertise in the meetings industry and in the conference sector could be used to create the almost perfect online registration, information management and payment systems. Today her company owns and leases to third parties a system that not only allows her customers all over the world to customize it and brand it for themselves, but also allows her to provide 24/7 support services from the comfort of her office in Lisbon. The systems allow for registration and information management for conferences held around the world be it in China, Russia or the USA. And because of the in-depth knowledge of the industry she is way ahead of the market and continually surprising her clients.

Linda runs meetings form 10 to 50 thousand delegates and has her own in-house IT engineering team. In order to stay ahead of the market trends, she travels continually and is respected internationally as a speaker, writer and as an educator, she is continually being invited to speak to professionals in the Business Travel Sector and has lectured in countries such as Italy, Spain, Russia, Egypt, Cape Verde, United Kingdom, Dubai, Spain, Poland, Germany and The Netherlands to name just a few.

Linda is also the only female ever to be invited by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to speak at a local event. Her company has been involved in the major events which marked the last 30 years from EXPO ’98, EURO 2004, three EU Presidencies among others, and played an active role in many major events and bids for world events. Her team is recognized for their efficiency and professionalism and thinking outside the box. She is passionate about associations and sits on a variety of association boards herself. Linda is also a consultant to a variety of international tourism boards and associations.

In 2008 she was considered one of Portugal’s five most influential people in the industry and received the annual education award from USA-based IAHMP. In 2009 she received the medal of honor for positive entrepreneurship from the Mayor of Cascais for her commitment to promoting culture and heritage and for CSR initiatives. She is currently the European Ambassador for the Venetian Group and for the City of Johannesburg.

Linda is passionate about the environment and about helping women in emerging economies reach their full potential and continually voluntarily trains and educates and empowers women to use the internet as a form of self-sustaining their professional skills. She has worked with women’s business associations by educating them in internet possibilities in African and Arab countries for the last five years. For more information visit: www.CPLEvents.pt

Note:Linda is one of WE Magazine for Women’s Top 100 Women in Ecommerce™ for 2012. To read about the other 99 women, visit (PDF): http://bit.ly/whoswho2012 or (turning page): http://bit.ly/wewhoswho2012