World Bank senior VP joins Areva

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Ana Palacio, former Spanish foreign affairs minister and currently senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank, is to become a member of Areva's Executive Committee, the French fuel cycle company has announced.
 

Areva's latest recruit, Ana Palacio

Palacio will take over the position of senior vice president of international affairs and marketing once the current holder of that role, Jean-Jacques Gautrot, takes up a new role heading Areva's activities in the UK. The moves clearly indicate that Areva expects extensive international collaboration in coming years, not least in the reborn UK market.
 

A lawyer by profession, Palacio has a long and impressive CV. A former member of the European Parliament, she became Spain's foreign affairs minister in 2002, a position she held until 2004. She chaired the joint committee of the two houses of the Spanish parliament until 2006, when she joined the World Bank. An expert on international law who has held the most senior positions in the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, Palacio's credentials includes senior positions in the governing body of European lawyers, honorary membership of the English and Welsh bars, membership of the Board of Trustees and former executive presidency of the Academy of European Law, among many others. In January 2004 she appeared in a list of 75 'global opinion leaders' compiled by the Wall Street Journal.
 

Palacio's sister, the late Loyola de Palacio, was a minister in the Spanish government from 1996 to 1998, and went on to serve at the European Commission as commissioner for energy and transport, eventually becoming vice-president, leaving the European Commission in 2004.