Ana Palacio is an international lawyer and founder of Palacio y Asociados (Madrid, Brussels, and Washington, D.C.), a law firm specializing in European and international law and arbitration.
Palacio was the first woman to serve as foreign minister of Spain from 2002 to 2004. Before this, she was a member of the Spanish Parliament and a member of the European Parliament. Palacio also served on Spain’s Council of State, as senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group, and as secretary general of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Palacio was a member of the executive committee and senior vice president for international affairs of the nuclear energy leader AREVA. She currently sits on the corporate boards of Enagás and Ecoener, and is a member of the international advisory board of OCP Group.
Palacio is a visiting professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P). She is a regular speaker at international conferences and a contributes a monthly column for Project Syndicate and a weekly column for El Mundo (Spain).