Manuel Vicente
| Manuel Vicente | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Vice President of Angola | |
|
Assumed office 26 September 2012 |
|
| President | José Eduardo dos Santos |
| Preceded by | Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 May 1956 Luanda, Portuguese Angola |
| Political party | MPLA |
| Alma mater | Agostinho Neto University |
Manuel Domingos Vicente (born 15 May 1956) is an Angolan politician who has been Vice President of Angola since September 2012. Previously he was chief executive officer of Sonangol, Angola's state oil company, from 1999 to 2012, and he briefly served in the government as Minister of State for Economic Coordination in 2012.
Born at Luanda, Vicente earned an electronic engineering degree at the University of Angola (Agostinho Neto University) in 1983. After working as a chief engineer during the 1980s, he headed the technical department of the Ministry of Oil from 1987 to 1991. He was appointed as Deputy Director-General of Sonangol, the state oil company, in 1991.
In his professional training Manuel Vicente has degrees Substation and Transmission Lines, Furnas / Brazil-1985 Business Management of Petroleum, London, 1991, Marketing of Petroleum and its Derivatives, London-1991 Economics of Oil Operations - Petroleum Institute, London, 1991, Risk Analysis and Decision in the Oil Industry (OGCI) - Calgary 1992 petroleum Economics - (OGCI) - London 1992, among others connected to the oil industry.
He is the stepfather of the businessman, Mirco Martins.
In 1999, Vicente was appointed as head of Sonangol. In that key post, he presided over the most important sector of the Angolan economy and was considered a close associate of President José Eduardo dos Santos. During his time in charge of the company, oil production increased dramatically. He routinely traveled abroad, acquiring "an excellent reputation from the international business community". Vicente was appointed as a member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party, in December 2009.
A September 2011 report in Novo Jornal claimed that dos Santos intended for Vicente to be his successor. The report was followed by a flurry of speculation. Vicente was, however, reappointed for another term at the head of Sonangol in December 2011, briefly tempering the speculation.
President dos Santos appointed Vicente as Minister of State for Economic Coordination on 30 January 2012;Francisco de Lemos José Maria succeeded Vicente at Sonangol. In line with earlier speculation, the move was generally interpreted by observers as suggesting that dos Santos was positioning Vicente as his eventual successor. It appeared that Vicente's government post would give him a great deal of authority in managing the economy, and it would bolster Vicente's credibility and experience given that he had previously only been involved in the oil industry. Nevertheless, it was believed that some other leading figures in the ruling party were skeptical about Vicente, given his relative inexperience in politics, and could be trying to resist the President's efforts to position him for the succession.
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