Carlos has recently been appointed the Head of the Research and Training Office of the National Secretariat on Drug Policy – an unit under Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Safety. Carlos advises and assists Brazil’s National Secretary on Drug Policy in the design, monitoring and evaluation of research and training programs related to drug supply reduction and drug control. Additionally, he acts as the Ministry’s representative at meetings and as a resource person in contacts with other government agencies, embassies and universities. Prior to that appointment, Carlos was the Chief Research Officer at the Brazilian Institute for Defence Studies, a think tank associated with Brazil’s Ministry of Defence for four years. In 2017, he was granted a leave of absence (that ran through December 2018) to participate in the first cohort of the AsiaGlobal Fellows Program at the University of Hong Kong, as well as in the Taiwan Fellowship Program at the National Taiwan University.

He has been a career policy specialist with the Brazilian Federal Government since 2000 and a part-time International Relations lecturer and Professor at a local university since 2002. Before joining the Ministry of Defence in 2015, he worked at the Ministries of Justice and Finance. In 2007 he was granted a leave of absence and a full scholarship to carry out doctoral studies abroad. He was awarded a PhD degree by the University of Westminster in 2011.