Economy

Director at the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) at the European Commission. She oversees the work on economic surveillance and policy coordination for the economies of 9 Member States which includes monitoring, analysing, and forecasting their economic and fiscal developments.
She is also the lead negotiator for these Member States in the context of the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Before that, she headed the ECFIN Unit dealing with competitiveness and structural reforms.
Isabel started her career as a scholar and researcher holding several positions at the Catholique University of Louvain (UCL) and at the University of Lille.
She holds a Ph.D in Economics and has a solid publication record in the areas of game theory, industrial economics and entrepreneurship which target theoretical and analytical questions as well as policy-design ones.

Last update: march 2026

She holds a PhD in Tourism, a MA in Chinese Studies (Business and International Relations) and a BSc in Tourism Management and Planning from the University of Aveiro, where she is assistant professor, at the Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, holding the positions of director of the master in Tourism Management and Planning and Coordinator of international mobility (Erasmus Program) for tourism studies.
She is a member of the research unit ‘Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies’ of the University of Aveiro; and a founding member of the Observatory of China and the Portuguese Institute of Sinology.
She is also member of the editorial, scientific and review boards of a few academic national and international journals.
She has authored and co-authored several national and international papers and communications on tourism development, networks, tourism in China and Goa (India), gender and tourism, and internationalization of the tourism economy.

Last updated: november 2025

Eduardo Brito-Henriques holds a PhD in Human Geography and is associate professor with habilitation at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Lisbon (Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território da Universidade de Lisboa, IGOT-ULisboa).
He is a researcher at the Centre for Geographical Studies (Centro de Estudos Geográficos), where he coordinates the PhD in Tourism and leads the TERRITUR – Tourism, Heritage & Space (TERRITUR – Turismo, Património e Território) research group.
His work focuses on sustainable tourism, cultural geography and urban studies.
He also serves on the board of the Tourism Commission of the International Geographical Union.
His research has been published in various journals, including Tourism Geographies, Cities, Urban Geography, Cultural Geographies and the International Journal of Tourism Research.

Last updated: October 2025

Gonzalo Escribano heads the Energy and Climate Programme at the Elcano Royal Institute. He is also a full Professor of Applied Economics at the UNED.
He has a PhD in Economics from Madrid’s Complutense University, he has been a visiting researcher at Florida State University and the Autonomous University of Madrid and he is an associate researcher at the Centro Español de Relaciones Internacionales (Fundación Ortega y Gasset).

Last updated: july 2025

Fellow in the Energy and Climate Programme at the Elcano Royal Institute.
He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Navarra and a master’s degree from Sciences Po Paris.
Prior to joining Elcano, Ignacio worked in the energy sector and was affiliated with the Energy and Climate Centre at Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI).

Last updated: july 2025

João Fachada currently works as a researcher and independent consultant for IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research focusing on policies for the climate and energy transitions.
He has worked on topics such as energy, the climate and public sector modernisation, both as a consultant at Deloitte and within the Economic Policies Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service. He also served as an advisor to the Secretary of State for Energy and the Climate in Portugal.
João has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Coimbra and a master’s degree in Economics, with a focus on public policy, from Nova School of Business and Economics.

Last updated: july 2025

Psychologist and associate professor at the London School of Economics, where he teaches in the department of Psychological and Behavioural Science.
A world-leading expert on perfectionism, he is the author of the bestselling book «The Perfection Trap» (2023) and the presenter of a TED Talk that has been viewed over three million times.
His research and insights have been featured in TIME, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and many other outlets including New Scientist, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. Among his accolades are the «APA Division 47 Dissertation Award» and the «University of Leeds Research Excellence Award».

Last updated: july 2025

Sociologist and Researcher at the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto.  Her research interests include domestic violence, elder abuse, human trafficking and science communication. She is a guest collaborator with the Centre for Studies, Innovation and International Cooperation at Cuidadores Portugal.

Last updated: June  2025