Moderators and Speakers
José Manuel González-Páramo
BBVA EXTERNAL ADVISER
José M. González-Páramo holds a Ph.D., M.Phil. and M.A. in Economics from Columbia University, New York, and a Ph.D. from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1988 he joined the Complutense University of Madrid as a professor of Economics. In 2012 he joined the IESE Business School as a professor. Previously he was an economic advisor to various public and private institutions, including the Bank of Spain, the European Commission, the IMF and the World Bank. He was a member of the Executive Board and the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), and of the Bank of Spain. In June 2013, he was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of BBVA, the Bank's Head of Global Economics & Public Affairs, and Chair of its International Advisory Board.
Martin Wolf
CHIEF ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES
@martinwolf_
Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. Martin started his career as a Young Professional at the World Bank in 1971, subsequently becoming Senior Economist in the India Division in 1974 and working on the core team of the first World Development Report in 1977-1978, before leaving the Bank in 1981. He joined the Financial Times in 1987. He was made a Doctor of Science (Econ), honoris causa, by the London School of Economics in December 2006. He was a member of the UK government’s Independent Commission on Banking between June 2010 and September 2011.
Victor Lapuente
PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG AND ESADE
@VictorLapuente
Víctor Lapuente holds a PhD in Political Science from Oxford University. He is currently a Professor at the University of Gothenburg and a visiting professor at ESADE. He is a columnist for El País and collaborates with Cadena SER. His most recent book is "Organizing the Leviathan. Politicians, Bureaucrats, and the Making of Good Government".
José Ignacio Conde-Ruiz
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID
@conderuiz
José Ignacio Conde-Ruiz is Ph.D. in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (with Honors), Professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and Deputy Director of Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA). He has worked in the Prime Minister´s Economic Bureau as a General Director for Economic Policy (2008-2010). He has also worked as External Consultant at the World Bank. He has also published scientific articles in academic journals of international standing such us Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic European Association, Journal of Public Economics, Economic Theory, The Economic Journal and Review of Economic Dynamics. He is co-editor and author of a blog of the Spanish Economy (www.nadaesgratis.es).
Jaime Caruana
INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR AT THE BBVA BOARD
Jaime Caruana holds a M.Sc. in telecommunications engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Currently, he is an independent director at the BBVA board. He was the General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements. Previously, he was Financial Counsellor to the Managing Director and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund. Mr Caruana also was the Governor of the Bank of Spain, Spain’s central bank, and in that capacity, served on the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. He was also the Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and has been a member of the Financial Stability Forum since 2003. Prior to joining the Bank of Spain, he worked in the private financial sector for nearly 10 years.
María Sicilia
Director of International Strategy, ENAGAS
Director of International Strategy at ENAGAS S.A., with responsibility for the company´s strategic plan as well as business intelligence and market analysis, including assessment and monitoring of global investment opportunities. Prior to this current assignment, she was Deputy Director-General for Energy Planning at the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and a member of the Board of IDAE. As such, she was responsible for Spain´s long-term energy policy and prospective, including development of energy networks, energy efficiency and climate-related energy policies. Before joining the Spanish Government in 2012, she was Head of Prospective at Iberdrola Renovables, and a member of the steering committees of the main renewable industry associations (EWEA, GWEC, AEE, REN-21).
Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez
Governor of the Bank of Spain (2006-2012)
He is an economist and civil servant. He was governor of the Bank of Spain between 2006 and 2012. He has a degree in Law and Economic Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. He is a career civil servant, belonging to the Corps of State Commercial Technicians and Economists. He was secretary of State for the Economy, secretary of State for Commerce, and Executive director of the International Monetary Fund. In 1992 he was appointed president of the Court of Defense of the Competition. Between 1995 and 1999 he was president of the Commission of the National Electric System. Between 2004 and March 2006 he was secretary of state for Internal Revenue. On 10 March he was appointed Counsellor of the Bank of Spain and a member of its Executive Commission.
Jared Diamond
Professor of Geography at the University of California
He is a geographer, historian, anthropologist, ornithologist, and writer. Some of his best-known books are: The Third Chimpanzee (1991); Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); Collapse (2005), The World Until Yesterday (2012), and Upheaval (2019). Originally trained in biochemistry and physiology, Diamond is known for drawing from a variety of fields, including anthropology, ecology, geography, and evolutionary biology. He is a professor of geography at UCLA. He attended the Roxbury Latin School and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College in 1958 and a Ph.D. on the physiology and biophysics of membranes in the gall bladder from Trinity College, University of Cambridge in 1961.
Richard Wike
Director, Global Attitudes Research
@RichardWike
He conducts research and writes about international public opinion on a variety of topics, such as America’s global image, the rise of China, democracy, and globalization. He is an author of numerous Pew Research Center reports, including U.S. Image Suffers as Publics Around World Question Trump’s Leadership; Post-Brexit, Europeans More Favorable Toward EU; Globally, Broad Support for Representative and Direct Democracy; Chinese Public Sees More Powerful Role in World, Names U.S. as Top Threat; and Global Support for Principle of Free Expression, but Opposition to Some Forms of Speech. In addition, he has written pieces for The Atlantic, Financial Times, the Guardian, Politico, Foreign Policy, CNN, BBC, CNBC, and other online and print publications.
Justin Gest
Associate Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government
@_JustinGest
Associate Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. His teaching and research interests include comparative politics, immigration, and demographic change. He is the author of four books: Apart: Alienated and Engaged Muslims in the West (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2010); The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2016); The White Working Class: What Everyone Needs To Know (Oxford University Press 2018); and Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change (Cambridge University Press, 2018), co-authored with Anna Boucher.
David Wallace Wells
Journalist and writer
@dwallacewells
He is a New York journalist with a degree in history from Brown University. He is Deputy Editor of New York Magazine and has held this same position at The Paris Review, where he has worked with authors of the caliber of Ann Beattie and Jonathan Franzen. In turn, Wallace-Wells has collaborated with Wired, Harper's, and The Guardian. In his articles, he writes about science and culture and, especially, about climate change in the context of our most imminent future, for which he remains both cautious and hopeful. Author of "The uninhabitable planet: Life after warming" (Debate, 2019).
Santiago Liniers
Program Manager, Aspen Institute España
Santiago joined Aspen Institute España in May 2014. Santiago holds a Masters in International Relations at the University Institute for European Studies from the CEU San Pablo University and a Degree in Journalism from the CEU San Pablo University. Previously, he studied Political Science and the Palestinian and Arabic Studies Program at Bir Zeit University, in Palestine. He has worked at the press department of the Elcano Royal Institute, at the graphic department of the Agencia EFE, and has done voluntary work at the Palestinian Agricultural Union in Hebron, the West Bank. He speaks Spanish, English, and has a basic knowledge of Arabic.