Luis Sánchez-OrtizSpanish, Economist and Master in European Economy

Luis Sánchez-Ortiz has over 25 years experience of working, mainly in the Public Sector, and in an international environment. Starting from the Economic Directorate of the Governmental Regional Administration of Madrid, he devoted six years to matters related to the accession of Spain to the European Union and its adaptation for Madrid area. He later became a member of the Spanish Delegation to the European Space Agency (ESA) at CDTI (Ministry of Industry), where he was responsible for finance and administrative matters, and where he also had the opportunity to become acquainted with the programmes of other international organisations.

In 1995, Luis joined the ESRF as Head of the Internal Audit Service at a time when the construction period was ending, commercial activities were being initiated, and access to the ESRF by Scientific Associates was beginning. In addition to the traditional internal audit tasks, he contributed to the set of internal rules and regulations that were essential for the running of the company. Five years later, he accepted a proposal from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology to become Managing Director of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, created only a few months earlier with the aim of promoting knowledge generation and technological transfer. The Foundation operates with the goal of rendering a continuous and flexible service to the Spanish system of science-technology-enterprise.

In 2007, moving to the private sector, Luis became Director of the Innovation Department of Consultrans, a consultancy company in Spain that provides strategic advice and technical assistance to the Ministries and Agencies focussing on Science and Technology.

Luis joined the ESRF in September 2012 for a 5-year term as Director of Administration.