Isabel Mota has been the President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Board of Directors since May 2017. She was previously a member of this same board between 1999 and 2017. She has served as a non-executive member of the Banco Santander-Totta Board of Directors since July 2015. Graduating in Finance from the University of Lisbon (1973), she was Assistant Lecturer at the Higher Institute of Economics (1973-1975). She became Deputy Director of the Office for External Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Finance between 1978 and 1986 and subsequently Adviser to the Permanent Representation of Portugal to Brussels, in 1986. From 1987 to 1995, Isabel Mota was State Secretary for Planning and Regional Development in the 11th and 12th Constitutional Governments, with responsibility for negotiations with the European Union over Structural and Cohesion Funding for Portugal. She was also director of the Institute of Executive Training at Lisbon’s Nova University in 1977 and a member of the General Board of Telecel Vodafone (2001 – 2003). In 2004, she coordinated the drafting of the National Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Portugal and from 2017 to 2019 she was President of the Supervisory Board of Partex Holding B.V.. Isabel Mota currently sits on the COTEC-BPI PME Innovation award jury. She was a member of the Jacques Delors award jury (until 2017) and a member of the Career Award attributed by Lisbon’s Catholic University (until 2014). She also served as Adviser to the Economic and Social Council of Portugal (until 2016). She has been honoured with the “Gold” Medal for Distinguished Service by the Ministry of Health and appointed to the ranks of Grand Official and Grand-Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique. Since 2011, she has also sat on the Board of the Honorific Orders of Portugal.