Sara Lima was six years old, attending preschool from ages three to six. After that, she experienced her first major relocation when her family moved to Braga, Portugal, where she lived during her teenage years.

At 17, she moved to Porto to study Marketing and Management at IPAM. Surrounded by the river and sea, Porto quickly became the city of her heart. During university, she had the amazing experience of participating in the Erasmus program in Valencia, Spain, which truly opened her eyes to different cultures and ways of thinking.

When she was 23, she started working in her family’s home textiles business. During that time, she completed an Executive MBA at Católica Business School. This inspiring program took her to Barcelona, Spain, and São Paulo, Brazil, adding more stamps to her passport and more experiences to her life.

At 28, seeking new challenges and adventures, she decided to move abroad. In 2014, she arrived in São Paulo. Starting from scratch without the comforts of home was not easy, but she found a job at a small boutique recruitment company. She was fortunate to adapt quickly to the vibrant lifestyle of the city and made many friends. She ended up staying there for two enriching years.

The economic crisis in Brazil eventually led her back to her family’s business in 2016. This time, she moved to New York, where she had the chance to create, launch, and grow the Amalia Home Collection brand in the USA. Adapting to the fast-paced, efficient American work style was her biggest challenge, but her three years in New York were incredibly rewarding.

Now, she lives in Miami, where she has been for the past five years. Always eager for new ventures and driven by a passion for continuous growth, she found herself drawn to an extraordinary opportunity. In December 2021, she was accepted into Harvard Business School’s General Management Program (GMP 32). From January to May 2022, she was deeply immersed in this transformative program, which provided invaluable insights and profoundly impacted her professional and personal development.

Throughout her career, she has consistently looked for new challenges and opportunities to reinvent herself. This relentless drive for growth and adaptation has definitely been a defining aspect of her journey and has shaped the person she is today.

Sara Lima has been a member of the Portuguese Diaspora Council since June 2024.