Pedro Schwartz

Certified speaker Pedro Schwartz is Chairman of the Economic and Social Council of the Madrid Autonomous Community.  He has been a Professor of Economics at three Spanish Universities since 1970. At present he is Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Economics of the University San Pablo CEU in Madrid. Here he teaches the History of Economic Thought and directs the Centre for Political Economy and Regulation.

Additionally, Dr. Schwartz is a member of  the Advisory Committee of Capgemini Consulting, member of the Board of Directors of CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels), a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society, a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Liberales Institut Zurich. He isan Adjunct Scholar of the Cato Institute in the U.S. He is secretary of the Think Tank Civismo and trustee of the Foundation Pro Libertate.

From 2006 to 2008 he completed briefing papers for the Committee Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.

In September 1990, H.M. Queen Elisabeth II made him an Honorary Officer of the British Empire. In February 2003, he received the Rey Jaime I Prize for contributions to economics in Spain. In February 2005 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of Spain. In November 2010 H.M. the King of Spain awarded him the Rey Juan Carlos Prize for Economics.

Professional speaker Pedro Schwartz writes a weekly column in Expansión of Madrid and is featured every Monday on Radio Intereconomía. He often speaks on the Spanish financial and corporate scene for the BBC and has contributed to the Financial Times. He frequently lectures on economics and on company strategy.

The City of Madrid has awarded him the 2008 Jose Ortega y Gasset Prize for  the second edition of his book En busca de Montesquieu. La democracia en peligro (Ediciones Encuentro, Madrid).

He is a native Spanish speaker, is fluent in English, French and Italian and speaks Portuguese.

Summary of his professional experience

In the academic field, Dr. Pedro Schwartz worked at the Research Department of the Bank of Spain for ten years. Before holding a chair at Universidad San Pablo CEU, he was professor at the Economics Faculties of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1970-1992) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1992-2003). He taught History of Economic Thought, the History of Political Thought, the History of Spain in the 20^th c., and the History and Theory of Central Banking.

In the field of business, after leaving politics, keynote speaker Pedro Schwartz was chief economist at the Stock Exchange brokers Iberagentes and then for seven years chairman of the fund managers Fincorp Gestión. In the field of communications and information technologies he was president of Fundesco (the Telefónica Foundation), and the IT companies Servicom SA, and Interdomain SA. For the following five years he was executive consultant at the IT firm DMR Consulting.

Over the years he has set up, and worked for, a number of economic think tanks: Instituto de Economía de Mercado, Instituto de Estudios de Libre Comercio, and still going strong the Centre for Political Economy and Regulation at Universidad San Pablo CEU.

As an expert of the Economic and Monetary Committee of the European Parliament from 2006 to 2008, speaker Pedro Schwartz wrote a number of papers and attended various sittings of the Committee.