Xavier Prats Monné has had his first visit to the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau with the President of the Board, accompanied by Jordi Surrallés, Scientific Director of the Research Institute; Míriam Ors, Deputy Director and Chief Innovation & Technology Transfer Officer; Jaume Bacardit, Manager; and Laia Cendrós, Communication Director.
Prats Monné was nominated on November 29 to replace Manel Balcells, current Minister of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The new president has spent most of his professional career at the European Commission where he will be General Director of Health and Food Safety, from where he will lead the policies and programs of the European Union in matters of public health and feeding
He graduated in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and has a postgraduate degree (DEA) in economic development policies from the Center International des Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (DESS-CIHEAM, Montpellier), and in Estudis Europeus from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium).
Born in Tarragona, he was representant of the European Commission to the Government Council of the European Medicines Agency (EMA, London), to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC, Stockholm) and to the European Safety Authority Food (EFSA, Parma). Previously, the European Commission will also act as General Director of Education and Culture, Responsible for Programs of the European Union for Erasmus, Marie Curie and Creative Europe, and representative of the European Commission to the Government Council of the Institute Europeu d’Innovació i Tecnologia (EIT, Budapest), an institution created by the EU with the mission of strengthening innovation capacity in Europe.
He join Sant Pau in a time of transformation in which the Board of Trustees continues to promote the welfare of Sant Pau giving responses to present and future crawlers through the Strategic Plan – Més Sant Pau.
Currently, Prats Monné is the special assessor of Teach For All, a non-profit global organization with its State Units, present in 60 countries, which aims to expand the educational opportunities of the world, and is part of the boards of Teach For All to Europe, Spain and Belgium. He is also the president of the Committee for Europe of the King Baudoin Foundation (Belgium), the public health assessor of the Jacques Delors Institute (Paris), advisor for strategic initiatives of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and advisor of the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CYD). He is Minister of ASTANOR Ventures, a risk capital impact investor focused on the sustainability of food systems.
He is also part of the board of trustees of various nonprofit organizations, including Make Mothers Matter (UNESCO), and the External Scientific Committee of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). He is a member of the Institut d’Estudis Estratègics de Foment del Treball (IEEF) and the think tank DIKTIO (Athens).
In 2016 he recibe the Civil Order of Alfons X the Wise, which the Spanish State grants in recognition of merit in the fields of education, science, culture and research. Prats Monné is an honorary doctorate from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV).
