Do you still remember where you were in the year 2000? And what happened that year? In the world: There was much discussion on whether we were already in the 21 st century or if that was still the last year of the 20 th century (the discussion is endless); George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin were elected presidents of the USA and Russia, respectively; The impossible happened: an Air France Concorde carrying 100 people to New York crashed over a hotel in the Paris region, less than two minutes after taking off; The U2 achieved a mega success with Beautiful Day; Sony launched Playstation 2 and Maxis launched the first Sims; and FIFA split the award of best football player of the 20 th century between Pelé and Maradona. In Portugal: We said goodbye to Escudo and learned to make calculations with Euros, that would come into circulation on the 1 st of January 2002; We received, for the third and last time, the visit of Pope João Paulo II, who beatified two of the shepherd children and revealed the 3 rd secret from Fátima; Jorge Sampaio was in the Presidency of the Republic and António Guterres was prime-minister, and the so-known “Limiano Cheese Budget” came up; We heatedly discussed the pros and cons of co-incineration in the cement plants of Souselas and Outão; We followed on TVI channel the first Big Brother; We rejoiced with Fernanda Ribeiro (10 thousand meters) and Nuno Delgado (judo), who brought us bronze medals from the Olympic Games in Sidney. And we did not notice, but by 3 p.m. on July 6 , the chemical engineer Isabel Vaz and the manager João Abreu Novais, accompanied by the lawyer Madalena Mantas, signed in a registry officer on Rua Alexandre Herculano, in Lisbon, the deed of constitution of Espírito Santo Saúde. With a share capital of 2.5 million euros – 500 thousand contos, as it was said then –, the company, that had Isabel Vaz as executive manager and Ivo Antão (chemical engineer), João Novais and Tomás Branquinho da Fonseca (manager) as directors, proposed to build form scratch a private group for health. In that same month, this team celebrated the preliminary purchase agreement of the plot of land, where Hospital da Luz Lisboa would later be built, and by the end of that year, they acquired majority participation in the share capital of Cliria – Hospital Privado de Aveiro and Hospital da Arrábida. The rest of the story is already known and passed through the change of name to Luz Saúde, in 2014, with a new shareholder, Fidelidade. Instead of four, Luz Saúde has now 15.057 collaborators – 4.517 men and 10.540 women (70%) –, distributed over 30 hospitals, clinics and senior residences, attended by over two million clients. It has a mission and clearly defined values and is a renowned brand of excellency. Luz Saúde celebrates 20 years today , but the celebration of all that the Group has achieved does not fit in one day. Therefore, until the 6 July 2021, several initiatives will be developed encompassing all the collaborators and all the units of the Group in the country, as well as the communities they operate in and all those who chose to take care of your health. We want to thank each and every one of them. And we count with the participation of all. Congratulations, Luz Saúde!
