Manuel Schiappa Pietra

President & CEO of FreeBalance and Chairman on the Happiness Foundation board
Past President of The International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM)

Manuel Schiappa Pietra is President & CEO of FreeBalance and Chairman of the Happiness Foundation board. He is also a Past President of The International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM).

Manuel is a global executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of successful management experience in companies based in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and Latin America. 

As President and CEO of FreeBalance, Manuel is responsible for ensuring that FreeBalance fulfills its mission to help governments across the world leverage robust financial management technology to accelerate country growth. There, he leads global growth strategies focused on advancing the company’s objectives and promoting revenue, profitability and growth. Manuel has transformed the firm into a customer-centric and socially responsible company, increasing its footprint to 25 countries. FreeBalance was recently recognized by CFI.co with an international award for having one of the world’s most innovative solutions for management in the public sector.

As Chairman of the Happiness Foundation, Manuel spearheads the efforts to explore public policy innovation and wellbeing economics through a new perspective. The evolving science of happiness brings a new dimension to government policy and civic prosperity.

As Founding Chairman of the Board Endeavor Portugal, Manuel reinforces Endeavor’s mission to support high-impact entrepreneurs so that they can build thriving companies that employ thousands of people, generate billions in wages, and inspire others as role models.

Manuel has held executive positions on the boards of several international companies and actively participated in the venture capital space. He has participated in several successful IPOs in North America, Europe and South Africa.