José Manuel Durão Barroso (Lisbon, 1956) is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gavi, Aliança Global das Vacinas. He is also an Invited Professor at the Catholic University of Portugal, where he serves as Director of the Center for European Studies at the Institute for Political Studies.

He was Prime Minister of Portugal (2002/2004) and President of the European Commission during two terms (2004/2009 and 2009/2014).

He is also President of the General Assembly of the Portuguese Diaspora Council and Chairman of its EurAfrican Forum.

He is also Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Goldman Sachs International, London.

In these last functions, and among many other domains, it had a special leadership role in the integration of the new member states of the EU – which between the first and the last year of its mandates went from 15 to 28 countries, in the negotiations for the approval of the Treaty of Lisbon and also in the launch of the so-called 2020 program for Climate Change and Energy Security, as well as in the response to the financial and sovereign debt crisis.

In his long political career, he held governmental functions for twelve years (Secretary of State for Internal Administration, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in addition to Prime Minister) and also party functions, namely President of the Social Democratic Party and in that capacity leader of the Opposition, and parliamentarians (Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Assembly of the Republic). In the political-diplomatic sphere, his role as a mediator in the peace process for Angola (“Bicesse Agreements”) stands out, as well as his support for the peace process in Mozambique, as well as the beginning of direct talks with the Government of Indonesia, under mediation of the Secretary General of the United Nations, which would lead to the independence of Timor-Leste. He also played an important role in the creation of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries.

In the academic field, after a degree and a master’s degree in Law (University of Lisbon) and a master’s degree in Economic and Social Sciences – Political Sciences and a master’s degree in European Studies (University of Geneva), he would become an Invited Professor at the Universities of Georgetown and Princeton (USA). ). He is currently a Visiting Professor at the European University Institute (Florence), as well as a Non-Resident Scholar at Princeton University.

He was founder and director of the Revista de Ciência Política, the first specialized publication in this area in Portugal. He has several political and academic books and articles published in Portugal and abroad.

He was awarded honorary doctorates at more than thirty prestigious national and international universities: Geneva, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Edinburgh, Technical University of Lisbon, Rome Sapienza, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Brasilia, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and Kobe, among others. others.

He received the highest decorations from dozens of countries, including Portugal (Grand Cross of the Order of Christ and Grand Collar of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique), Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Lithuania , Estonia, Hungary, Ukraine, Cape Verde, East Timor, Morocco, Sovereign Order of Malta, etc.

Among other distinctions, the following stand out: Carlos V European Prize – Fundación Academia Europea de Yuste, Spain; Distinguished International Leadership Award – Atlantic Council, Washington DC; Quadriga Award, Berlin and the «Sciat et Serviat» Medal from the International Federation of Catholic Universities.

He received the golden keys or is an honorary citizen of Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and Athens, among other cities.

On behalf of the European Union, he received the Nobel Peace Prize and gave, together with the President of the European Council, the formal acceptance speech (Oslo, 2012).

On behalf of COVAX he received the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe (Lisbon, 2022).

He has given numerous conferences at some of the most prestigious international institutions (political, diplomatic, university and others) and is regularly invited as a keynote speaker at events of an academic or business nature.

He is a widower (of Margarida Sousa Uva, who died in 2016) and has three children, Luís, Guilherme and Francisco, two grandsons, Manuel and José, and a granddaughter, Benedita.

He has been a member of the Portuguese Diaspora Council since 2014.