Javier Fernández-Lasquetty

Dean of the School of Political Studies and International Relations, and Vice-President of the Universidad Francisco Marroquin (UFM) in Guatemala.

Javier Fernández-Lasquetty joined The Heartland Institute’s Board of Policy Advisors in 2017. Between 2010 and 2014, he was Regional Minister of Health of Madrid, Spain. He established the freedom to choose doctor and hospital in Madrid’s Public Health System. He resigned in January 2014 because he wasn’t able to proceed with the proposed private management of public hospitals in Madrid.

Fernández-Lasquetty was Regional Minister of Immigration of Madrid (2007-2010), a position from which he led a classical liberal based policy of integration of immigrants living in Madrid. He worked for many years with former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, of which he was Deputy Director of his Cabinet (2002-2004). He was Director of FAES Foundation and Member of the Spanish Parliament (2004-2007).

According to the annual ranking prepared by the University of Pennsylvania, FAES is the most important think tank of Spain and Nº 60 worldwide. FAES’s mission is to create, promote and disseminate ideas based on political, intellectual and economic freedom, able to offer alternative policies and thinking.

Fernández-Lasquetty’s career in Spanish politics began working with Esperanza Aguirre, to whom he was Chief of Staff in the City Council of Madrid, in the Ministry of Education and at the Senate. He previously worked in the private sector in several market research companies.

He has a degree in Law and a degree in Political Science from Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
He was an Associate Professor at Universidad Camilo José Cela (Madrid). He has given many academic sessions in several Master and Post-graduate courses of Spanish and Latin American Universities, and has written op-eds for Libertad Digital, Elcato and other digital media.

Born and raised in Spain (1966), Fernández-Lasquetty is married and has three children.

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