Xavier Prats Monné is the Special Advisor of Teach For All, a global non-profit organisation whose mission is to expand educational opportunity around the world.

He is also the Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and Chief Advisor at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT-Heath), an institution created by the European Union in 2008 to strengthen Europe’s ability to innovate. He sits on the Board of several non-profit organisations.

From Sept. 2015 to Sept. 2018, he was the Director-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. In this capacity he was responsible for the European Union’s policies and programmes in health and food safety, including the promotion of public health, the assessment of national healthcare systems, pharmaceutical legislation, animal health and welfare, as well as the strengthening of Europe's capacity to deal with pandemics and crisis situations in human health as well as in the food sector. He also represented the European Commission in the Governing Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA, London), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA, Parma) and in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC, Stockholm), as well as at the World Health Organisation.

Between 2011 and 2015 he was first Deputy Director-General and then the Director-General for Education and Culture. In this capacity, he was responsible for the European Union’s education and culture policies and programmes, including Erasmus+, Marie Curie, and Creative Europe, and he represented the European Commission on the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT, Budapest) and on the Advisory Board of EIT-Health.

From 2007 to 2010, he was the Director for employment policy and one of the five founding members of the European Commission’s Impact Assessment Board, reporting to the President. Among his previous responsibilities in the European Commission, he served as Deputy Head of Cabinet of the Vice-President for international relations; as Advisor of the Commissioner for Regional policy; and as Assistant Spokesman of the President, Mr Jacques Delors.

He is the recipient of the Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio, awarded by Spain in recognition of merit in the fields of education, science, culture and research. He received a Doctorate honoris causa from the Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain), and he advises the Open University of Catalonia (UOC, Barcelona) on innovation and strategic initiatives and is a member of the Advisory Board of its eHealth Centre.

He holds degrees in social sciences (Sociology, anthropology major) from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid (Licenciatura); in development policy from the Centre International des Haute Études Méditerranéennes of Montpellier, France (DEA); and in European Studies from the College of Europe of Bruges, Belgium, where he graduated first of the Class of 1981-82 and served as assistant professor. He completed his primary and secondary education (“Maturità Scientifica”) at the Istituto Massimo of Rome, Italy. He is fluent in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan.

Education Education Professionals, Educational Motivation, Teacher Education, Education Reform, Teacher Motivation, Leadership,