Spain : Mr Raúl Compés elected new Director of CIHEAM Zaragoza

The CIHEAM Governing Board has ratified the appointment of Mr Raúl Compés as the new Director of CIHEAM Zaragoza.

The Governing Board of the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) agreed on 27th November to ratify the appointment of Mr Raúl Compés as the new Director of CIHEAM Zaragoza. Mr Compés, professor in the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) will begin to perform his duties on 4th January 2021 replacing Mr Javier Sierra Andrés, former Director of CIHEAM Zaragoza, who served as the leading representative of this Institution from September 2015 to June of this year.

Mr Raúl Compés will be leading the only international organization located in Aragon, being the Spanish Delegation of the CIHEAM, an intergovernmental organization created in 1962 by the OECD and the Council of Europe, whose foremost mission is to promote international cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean; that is, between the South of Europe and North Africa and the Middle East, to generate, transfer and apply knowledge in the areas of agro-food, environment and rural development. Throughout this journey of 50 years, CIHEAM Zaragoza has trained over 15,000 leaders in the agro-food sector, especially from the Mediterranean basin and Africa, as well as from Latin America and, in recent years, from Asia. CIHEAM Zaragoza has also delivered more than 400 advanced courses, in which over 1,000 lecturers, as well as experts from universities and reference centers from around the world, have participated. Finally, to facilitate access to this specialized training, CIHEAM Zaragoza has awarded 6,700 scholarships to students.

Mr Raúl Compés López holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). His teaching, research, transfer and technical assistance activities are framed in the area of Economics and Politics of the agro-food sector. His recent work comprises wine, citrus, production costs, trade agreements, climate change, competitiveness and international markets, big data, sustainability, social economy and ethics. He has been President of the Spanish Association of Agricultural Economics (AEEA) between 2013 and 2019, and consultant for the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America. He is currently Vice President of the European Association of Wine Economists; academic coordinator of the area of economics of the Wine Technology Platform (PTV), and member of the Spanish Commission of the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV). He has coordinated two award-winning books by this organization: "Wine economy in Spain and in the world", in 2015; and “The wine sector in the face of climate change challenge. Public and private mitigation and adaptation strategies in the Mediterranean”, in 2019.