Diego Hidalgo has been a powerful force in both Spanish media and efforts to stimulate economic growth in developing countries.

A graduate of the University of Madrid Law School and the Harvard Business School, Hidalgo served at the World Bank from 1968 through the mid-1970s.

In 1976, he became founder and executive chairman of the Fund for Research and Investment for the Development of Africa. He subsequently became nonexecutive chairman of the board, and president in 2000, as well as chair of FRIDA’s subsidiary, DF International, which specializes in restructuring public enterprises and the financial sector, and works with international organizations in developing countries.

Hidalgo has been instrumental to the development of major media in Spain. Between 1971 and 1972, he co-founded El País, which was conceived as an independent national newspaper that would help facilitate the transition from dictatorship to democracy in the post-Franco era, and has since grown into Spain’s most widely read newspaper.

The author of numerous books and publications, Hidalgo has served as a fellow and member of the visiting committee at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and as senior associate of the Center for European Studies, both at Harvard University. He is also a founding director and senior fellow of the Gorbachev Foundation of North America at Northeastern, and president of Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior.