In Conversation with Ana Palacio - Student & Public Talks

This event took place in the Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON.

On November 21, Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister of Spain and a member of the European Parliament,  joined Janice Stein, University Professor at the Munk School and Department of Political Science, to discuss the role of democracies in foreign policy within a changing world. H.E. Professor Alfredo Martínez Serrano, Ambassador of Spain, and Professor Peter Loewen, Director of the Munk School, provided introductory and welcome remarks.

About our Speaker

Ana Palacio is a Senior Strategic Counsel to ASG, where she draws on her experience as Foreign Minister of Spain and a member of the European Parliament to advise clients on business in Brussels and throughout the European Union. Ms. Palacio is also the Founding Partner of Palacio y Asociados, a Madrid-based consulting and law firm.

Ms. Palacio was the first woman to serve as Foreign Minister of Spain, from 2002-2004. Previously she was a member of the Spanish Parliament, where she chaired the Joint Committee of the two Houses for European Affairs. She also served as a member of the European Parliament, where she chaired the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee and the Conference of the Committee Chairs, the most senior decision-making body on legislative policy and programs.

As the Head of the Spanish Delegation to the European Union’s Intergovernmental Conference and a member of the Presidium of the Convention, Ms. Palacio was at the forefront of the debate on the future of the European Union and drafted and led legal discussions on the European Treaties reform.

Previously, she served as Senior Vice President for International Affairs of AREVA, the international nuclear and renewable energy company; Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group and Secretary General of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

She is currently an Arbiter at the Arbitration of Madrid’s Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Pharmamar, a biopharmaceutical company; a member of the International Advisory Board of INVESTCORP, an alternative investment products provider, and of Anadarko, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company.

She serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of the European Union, the Board of the Atlantic Council of the U.S., and the Supervisory Board of Hague Institute for Internationalization of Law. Ms. Palacio graduated with honours from the Lycée Français (Baccalauréat Mathèmatiques).