Gustavo Suárez Pertierra was born in Cudillero, Asturias, in 1949.

He has a degree in law from the University of Oviedo. In 1973-74 he attended the University of Munich on a West German government scholarship. In 1978 he became professor of canon law and state ecclesiastical law at Madrid's Universidad Complutense, of which he was Secretary General in 1981-82.

In November 1982 he was appointed Director General of Religious Affairs at the Ministry of Justice and Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom, a position he held until February 1984 when he became Under-secretary at the Ministry of Defence. In 1990 he was appointed Secretary of State for Military Administration, also at the Ministry of Defence. From July 1993 he was a member of the government as Minister of Education and, two years later, as Minister of Defence, a post he held until May 1996.

He was a member of Parliament for Asturias from 1996 to 2000, being elected Chairman of Committee for Public Administration at the Congress of Deputies.

He returned to academic life in May 2000 and the following December he became a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. He is visiting professor at several universities in Spain and abroad, as well as being a member of a number of academic societies, scientific committees and foundations. He is the author of a large number of papers in his particular field of study. In 2005 he has published a study on secularism in the Spanish constitution (La laicidad en la Constitución española) and another on education in values and multiculturalism in Europe (Educación en valores y multiculturalismo en Europa).

From July 2001 to April 2005 he was director of the Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado, a research institute focused on peace, security and defence studies. He is the director of the Master's Programme on Peace, Security and Defence and responsible for the research project on 'Defence Administration as a Public Policy in Latin America' for the ADEFAL network. He is the author of numerous studies on defence matters and on the constitutional position of the armed forces. His latest published works in this field are Veinticinco años de Constitución y Fuerzas Armadas and Paz, Seguridad y Defensa en Iberoamérica. Una reflexión en común.

He is married and has a son and a daughter.

Ambassador of Spain. A Law graduate from the Complutense University (1957), he joined the Diplomatic Corps in 1961, holding different positions in Madrid and abroad throughout his career. In 1977 he was the Civil Governor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and subsequently, of Guipúzcoa.

He held the position of Director of the Diplomatic Information Office between 1979 and 1981 and he represented Spain as Ambassador in Quito (1981-1983); Tokyo (1990-1994); Copenhagen (1994-1996) and Washington (1996-2000).

He was the Chairman of Santa Bárbara Sistemas until December 2006.

Born in Gijón (Asturias) on 26 May 1946, Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias has a degree (University of Oviedo, 1968) and doctorate in Law (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1975).  He has been a lecturer at the following universities: Oviedo, Freiburg, Autónoma de Madrid and Complutense de Madrid. In 1982 he was appointed Professor of Public International Law at the University of Extremadura and he held the same Chair at the University of Granada from 1983 to 2003. He has been both Judge (1986-2003) and President (1994-2003) of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. In December 2003 he was appointed Professor of Public International Law at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense. He is Jean Monnet Chair of European Community Law, Director of the Department of European Studies at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset (2004-05), Co-director of the Revista de Derecho Comunitario Europeo and member of the Editorial Boards of various law reviews.

He is also a member of the Curatorium of the Max Planck Institute for International Public Law and Comparative Law in Heidelberg, Doctor honoris causa by the University of Turin, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (Rumania), Sarre University, Oviedo University and the University of Saint Clement of Ohrid in Sofia (Bulgaria). He is an Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn (London) and King’s Inn (Dublin), Honorary Fellow of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies (London), Honorary Member of the Academia Asturiana de Jurisprudencia, Diploma honoris causa of the Rumanian Academy and Walter-Hallstein Prize (2003).

He is the author of a number of publications, particularly on European Union Law, among which are to be highlighted those on State monopolies and the public sector, the judicial application of EU Law, European constitutional affairs and the protection of fundamental rights and liberties.

His publications on Spanish politics include El Piloto del Cambio. El Rey, la Monarquía y la Transición a la Democracia (Espejo de España Prize; Planeta, 1991) and España en Democracia, 1975-2000 (Así Fue Prize; Plaza & Janés, 2001).

Between 1998 and 2002 he was Deputy Director of the European Studies programme at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset and in 2000-2002 was also Deputy Director of the Centro Español de Relaciones Internacionales (Fundación José Ortega y Gasset). He is currently Professor of Spanish History at the Universidad San Pablo-CEU.

In recent years his work has centred on Spanish foreign policy and, specifically, on Spain’s policies towards the European Union.

Graduated both in Law and in Information Sciences (Journalism) from the Complutense University of Madrid in June of 1977.

From June of 2000 to March of 2002 she was Director General of SECOT (Senior Spaniards for Technical Cooperation). Prior to this, as well as coontributing to different digital newspapers, between 1997 and 1999 she was Director of the Coordination Office of the National Commission for the Centenary of Federico García Lorca, and between 1990 and 1993 she was Director of the New York Office of Spain ‘92 Foundation, an American foundation created with the support of the National Commission for the Quincentennial Commemoration for the development of its activities in the United States. She has also worked in the Department of Marketing of the National Spanish Tourism Office in New York.

In 1982-83 she was involved in fund-raising activities at the UNICEF office in London and in 1976-77 she worked in the Press Office of the Spanish Embassy in the United Kingdom. She has been a member of the Board of Trustees of several different foundations. Since March of 2002 she has been Assistant Director of Institutional Relations at the Elcano Royal Institute.

A trained expert in Commerce, he is a graduate of the Madrid School of Commerce. Throughout his professional life he has attended annual seminars on fiscal and budgetary matters of relevance to new developments in the private sector.

His professional career has developed in the private sector. From 1970 to 1975 he was administrative manager of the Iseco Group, with responsibility for financial and real estate investments. Between 1975 and 1998, he worked at the Incresa Group, where he was administrative manager in charge of financial investments and the balance sheets of four companies. More recently, between 1998 and 2001 he was manager of the Fortuny Clinic.