About

profile

Miriam is the founder of España Mejor, a non for profit organisation that provides a new non-partisan way for Spanish citizens to contribute to policy making in order to respond to Spain's challenges and opportunities.

Miriam is an international trade lawyer who has previously set up the London based trade practices of two international law firms, and is a founding partner of the advisory firm Altius. Her extensive legal experience includes advising clients on intricate EU regulatory and trade matters, as well as handling multi-jurisdictional international investigations on trade and compliance. During the academic year 2021-2022 she lectured on international trade policy at Stanford University.

Miriam is a member of the EU Commission's pool of arbitrators for trade disputes. Her expertise in EU and trade matters was honed across various roles prior to focused legal practice. She was seconded to the UK Foreign Office as Adviser to the UK Presidency of the European Council, and prior to this served for seven years as a senior cabinet member for two EU External Relations Commissioners. She was the leading Middle East and North Africa adviser to Commissioner Patten (notably on the Middle East Peace Process) as well as the lead US trade adviser to Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner. Miriam also acted as EU lead negotiator for both the WTO Telecoms Agreement and the WTO accession agreements on e-commerce, energy, postal and construction services.

Miriam is a member of the European Council of Foreign Relations. She holds a degree in Law from the University of Valladolid, a Masters in European Policy from the College of Europe in Bruges and was Senior Associate Member of St Antony’s College in Oxford, as well as holding a piano degree.

She is the author of “Devuélveme el Poder” on the need for political reform in Spain, and “Made in Spain”.

Board Roles

Miriam served as Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of UBS Europe SE, having previously been the Chair of the Audit and Remuneration Committees at UBS Limited in the UK and Chair of Audit and Risk Committees at UBS Spain. She has also been a non-executive board member of the Spanish company Acciona. She is a member of the Diversity Board of Toyota Europe and was previously a member of the 'Barbie' Advisory Council with Mattel. She is a member of the international advisory board for the Círculo de Empresarios in Spain and member of various university advisory boards. Miriam also served for eight years as the Honorary President of Canning House, the UK’s leading forum on Latin American politics, economy and business.

Philanthropy

Miriam is the Founder and Chair of Inspiring Girls International, a charity dedicated to raising the aspirations of young girls around world by connecting them with female role models. The campaign currently operates in more than 25 countries across 6 continents and has led the highly praised global campaign #ThisLittleGirlIsMe.

Miriam González Durántez

profile

Board Roles

Philanthropy