He was a member of the Executive Committee and the Governing Council of the European Central Bank from 2004 to 2012, in charge of the Market Operations, Banknotes, Research, Statistics and Risk Management areas. Member of the Committee on the Global Financial System of the Bank for International Settlement of Basel between 2006 and 2012. Previously, he was a member of the Executive and Governing Councils of the Bank of Spain (1994 to 2004). He has also been Executive Director of BBVA between 2013 and 2020, a position in which he held as Executive Officer Global Economics, Regulation & Public Affairs and Chairman of its International Advisory Council.
He is Ph.D., M.Phil. and Ma. from Columbia University (New York), studies carried out with Fulbright and Bank of Spain scholarships. He is also a Graduate (Extraordinary Award) and Doctor in Economics (Extraordinary Award) from the UCM. In May 1988 he obtained the Chair of Public Economics at the Complutense University. He has been an Extraordinary Professor at IESE Business School since 2012.
He is currently President of European DataWarehouse GmbH and Ltd and independent Director of Abanca. He belongs to the trustees of Bruegel, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Systemic Risk Council, the Euroamérica Foundation, the Iberoamerican Business Foundation, and the College of Central Bankers, among other entities, and is a member of the advisory councils of the Funcas Foundation and from the Scope Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, and Chairman of its Advisory Council, 2020.
He is a full member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and has received numerous distinctions, including the Carlos V Medal of the Spanish-German Chamber of Commerce, the Institut d'Estudis Financers Award for Financial Excellence, the Círculo de Empresarios Award, and Honoris Causa Doctorates from the Universities of Malaga and Seville, among others.
