Moderators and Speakers
Fiona Maharg Bravo
Director, international and financial media relations, Telefónica
Guillermo Fernández de Soto
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia (1998-2002)
He is currently the Corporate Director for Europe of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America. Guillermo has a degree in Law and Economics from the Javeriana University (1977), later he did postgraduate studies in International Relations (Georgetown University) and in Conflict Management (Harvard University).
Giles Tremlett
historian, author and journalist
@gilestremlett
Tremlett is a Fellow of the Cañada Blanch Centre at the London School of Economics and is author of three works of history and non-fiction that have been translated into half a dozen languages. He is Contributing Editor at The Guardian based in Spain, specializing in long form international reportage and political analysis. He previously worked for The Economist. He won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in 2018. He is the author of Ghosts of Spain, and biographies of Catherine of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.
Antonio Brufau
Román Gil Alburquerque
LAWYER SPECIALIZED IN LABOR LAW, PARTNER AND MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE, SAGARDOY ABOGADOS
He has broad and intense litigating practice at every jurisdictional level of Spain’s Labour and Employment Courts. Member of European Employment Lawyers Association (EELA) since its founding and of the International Bar Association (IBA). He has been a part of the Board of the Foro Español de Relaciones Laborales (FORELAB) and currently sits on the board of the Asociación Nacional de Abogados Laboralistas (ASNALA), the two most relevant associations of labor and employment lawyers in Spain. Mr. Gil has served on the Board of the Madrid Bar Association, is a frequent speaker in legal conferences, and often authors publications regarding his field of expertise. He is a professor at the Universidad de Navarra/IESE, Centro Garrigues, and at the IE University.
Pablo Simón
Political Scientist and Professor Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
@kanciller
He is a political scientist by vocation and training. He is editor of the blog Politikon and author of La Urna Rota. Doctor in Political Science from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), he has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Free University of Brussels. His main area of specialization is electoral systems, both in their causes and consequences, but he is also interested in party systems, comparative politics, the political participation of young people and the dynamics of electoral competition. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where he combines his work with informative activities outside of the academy.
Anthony Gardner
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (2014-2017)
@tonylgardner
Chief of Mission, U.S. Mission to the European Union. Anthony L. Gardner was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union on February 18, 2014. Prior to assuming his current position, Ambassador Gardner was Managing Director for six years at Palamon Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in London that focuses on providing growth capital to fast growing businesses in a wide variety of service sectors throughout Western Europe. In that capacity he managed financing, legal and tax structuring issues related to the firm's acquisitions and divestitures. Previously, Ambassador Gardner served as an Executive Director in the leveraged finance departments of Bank of America and GE Capital and as a Director in the international acquisitions group of GE International.
Ignacio Urquizu
Mayor of Alcañiz and Deputy of the Cortes of Aragon
@iurquizu
Ph.D. in Sociology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Doctor-member of the Juan March Institute. He has been Visiting Fellow at Harvard University (Boston, USA) and Visiting Researcher at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and the University of Essex (UK). He was a lecturer at the University of Essex, the George Washington University (Center of Madrid), the Open University of Catalonia, the Pablo Olavide University and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he is currently a professor of Sociology. He also collaborates with the Fundación Alternativas, where he was the Deputy Director of Progress Studies. In addition, he is part of the Next Left group at the European Foundation for Progressive Studies.
Alejandro Díaz-Garreta
Professor, Institución Educativa SEK
@adgarreta
He holds a degree in telecommunications engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (1990) and an EMBA from IESE Business School at Universidad de Navarra (1998). He currently follows a Bachelor's Degree in History Studies at UNED University in Madrid and a post-graduate Master in Contemporary History at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He fluently speaks five languages. He has worked for the Spanish Navy (1992), different telecommunications companies (1993, 2000), and A.T. Kearney as Manager Consultant (1999-2000). Within Telefónica, he has worked as Business Development Manager for Telefónica Internacional (1994-1997) and Telefónica InterContinental (1998), International Projects and Synergies Director for Telefónica Móviles (2002-2006) and Telefónica España (2006-2007)...
José Juan Ruiz
Independent consultant and advisor
@JjRuiz2018
Graduated in Economics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y Tecnico Comercial del Estado. Memberon a personal basis of the Scientific Committee of the Elcano Royal Institute (since 2012). Member of the Editorial Board of El País and Grupo Prisa.
Antoni Gutiérrez Rubí
COMMUNICATION ADVISOR AND POLITICAL CONSULTANT
@antonigr
He develops his work in Spain and in Latin America. Lecturer and visiting professor in various communication masters and courses at different universities. Victory Award for Political Blog of the Year. Informative Impact Mention (The Victory Awards Conference, for three consecutive years: 2012, 2013, 2014). He writes regularly in different media such as El Periódico; El País (where he also writes on his blog Micropolítica); or Five Days. He also contributes periodically to Revista R (Sunday supplement on politics and culture of the newspaper Reforma, Mexico), in the FORBES-México blogger network, in the newspaper El Telégrafo (Ecuador) in the section Reflections Dominicales, and in the program of Pablo McKinney.
Gideon Rachman
CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES
@gideonrachman
Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation.