Ignasi Guardans

Ignasi Guardans, Ph.D., started his career in 1991 as an academic in the field of Private International Law. He later practiced for some years at a law firm. In 1995 he started a political career, which took him first to the Catalan Parliament (1995); later the Spanish Parliament (two mandates, 1996-2004), and finally the European Parliament (2004-2009). Among other political responsibilities, for all those years Ignasi was always involved and directly involved in policy, legislative and governmental monitoring works in the field of culture, media and what would later be called creative industries. In 2009 he was appointed Director General of Spain’s Film & Audio-visual Agency ( ICAA ), a part of the Ministry of Culture. In many cultural issues of common interest he worked in close connection with other Government high officials responsible for other areas (Performing Arts & Music; Heritage; Books and Libraries; as well as Telecommunications). In 2011 he worked as the first Director of Public Affairs of the European Broadcasting Union (Eurovision). He moved to Brussels in 2012, and co-founded CUMEDIAE aisbl. In 2014 he also joined a global Law Firm as a Partner in its Brussels office. Among other generous and unexpected recognitions to his work, Ignasi was recently decorated as Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.