Diego Hidalgo Schnur (born 5 November 1942) is a Spanish philanthropist, intellectual and businessman. He is the son of Diego Hidalgo y Durán (1886-1961), who was a prominent jurist, author, intellectual and Minister of War under the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...

(1931-1936), and of Gerda Schnur de Hidalgo (1910-1969), also an intellectual who lived in Paris from 1926 and 1939. He speaks several languages, and is fluent in Spanish, French, English.

Early life and education

Born in Madrid on 5 November 1942, he studied Law in the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loc ...

(1959-1964) and obtained a Master in Business administration from Harvard (1966-1968). He was a PhD candidate in Political Sciences in the City University of New York (1996-2001).

Career

Hidalgo worked at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

from 1968 to 1977 where he was upgraded and in 1974 became Chief of Division, with responsibilities over the projects of the World Bank in the 45 Sub-Saharan African countries. He was the youngest person and the first Spaniard occupying that position. He is the founder of FRIDA (Fund for Research and Investment for the Development of Africa) and President of DFC (Development Finance Corporation), from 1977. He took part in the foundation of PRISA, the main Spanish media group and one of the most important in Spain. He currently sits on the board of PRISA, as well as the daily ''

El Pais EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...

'' since 1980 and the radio channel ''

Cadena SER La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is Spain's premier radio network in terms of both seniority (it was created in 1924) and audience share (it had a regular listenership in 2018 of 4,139,000). The acronym SER stands for ''Sociedad Española de Radi ...

'' since 1984. He also took part in the administration of several publishing houses and magazines. In 1994, he was selected in the Fellow's Program of

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs A weatherhead, also called a weathercap, service head, service entrance cap, or gooseneck (slang) is a weatherproof service drop entry point where overhead power or telephone wires enter a building, or where wires transition between overhead an ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where between 1996 and 1999 he was Senior Associate of the European Studies Center. In 2009 he was the winner of the ''Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award'' of the

Center for Global Development The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, direc ...

Founder

He is the founder and presently honorary president of

FRIDE The FRIDE (''Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior'', Spanish for "Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue") was an independent European think tank headquartered in Madrid and Brussels. As of 201 ...

, ''(Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior)'', of the

Club of Madrid Club de Madrid is an independent non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community. Composed of 121 regular members from 72 countries, including 7 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and 20 first female heads ...

, an association of more than seventy former democratically elected heads of State and Government, the CITPax (International Toledo Center for Peace) and the Fundacio Maimona. He is the Chairman of the Board for DARA (international organization) and Concordia 21. He is also a founding member and senior fellow of the

Gorbachev Foundation The Gorbachev Foundation (russian: Горбачёв-Фонд, ''Gorbachyov-Fond'') is a non-profit organization headquartered in Moscow, founded by the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in December 1991 and began its work in January 1992 ...

of North America (GFNA), and an active member of the Club of Rome and its council of Governors.

Books

He has published books as ''El futuro de españa'' Taurus 1996 (the future of Spain), in the top 10 best sellers in Spain during 23 weeks and ''Europa, Globalización y Unión Monetaria'' (Europe, Globalization and Monetary Union) Siddarth Mehta, 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hidalgo Schnur, Diego 1942 births Living people Harvard Business School alumni Complutense University of Madrid alumni Spanish people of German descent Businesspeople from Madrid