Dr. Cristina Garmendia y Mendizábal (San Sebastian

San Sebastián

Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...

, 1962) is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 businesswoman and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, who is currently serving as Minister of Science and Innovation.

Garmendia received her PhD in Biology in 1989 from Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She completed the Executive MBA program at IESE

IESE

IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. IESE has campuses in Barcelona, Madrid, and New York City and teaching facilities in Munich and Sao Paulo...

, Universidad de Navarra. She was the CEO of Genetrix, a successful biotechnology company involved in stem-cell research. Garmendia as Minister of Science and Innovation is responsible for reducing bureaucracy in the Spanish science field, making it productive, and recruiting talent. Nonetheless, her role during the economical crisis has been much criticized because of the continuous budget reductions.

As of October 2009 she is the wealthiest member of the Spanish Government.