João Sousa Gião

João Sousa Gião is the General Counsel of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). His responsibilities include all legal matters arising from the work of the ESM and the European Financial Stability Facility. Mr Sousa Gião also supervises the Legal and Compliance department.

After starting his career in a private law firm, Mr Gião joined the European Financial Stability Facility (predecessor of the ESM) in 2011 and, as a member of the Legal division, was responsible for setting up many of the ESM’s processes and policies related to capital markets. From 2017 to 2020 he was a Management Board member of the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM). During the same period, at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), he was an alternate member of the Board of Supervisors and of the Management Board and chaired the Supervisory Convergence Standing Committee and the Senior Supervisors Forum. 

He returned to the ESM as Senior Advisor to the General Counsel, and between September 2022 and September 2023, was also Acting Head of the Legal and Procurement division.

Mr Gião studied law at Lisbon University’s Law School and obtained additional specialisation in management at IMD, Lausanne. He lectures at Coimbra University Law School (Financial Law Institute) and is a published author in the areas of securities law, company law, and corporate governance. 

The ESM Management Board assists the Managing Director in conducting the current business of the ESM, in preparing the decisions of the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors and in seeing to their implementation.