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Mr. Sebastián holds degrees in Business and Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid and a PhD. in Economic Sciences from Minnesota University (USA) as well as a doctorate from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

In the academic field, he has been deputy director of the magazine "Moneda y Crédito" and a member of scientific committees of the Revista Española de Economía [Spanish Journal of Economics], of FEDEA [initials in Spanish of the Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada - Applied Economics Foundation] and of NOMISMA. He is Professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, in the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid.

He has worked in the General Planning Office of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and in the Research Service of the Bank of Spain and was Vice-President of Intermoney. In 1996, he was appointed Chief Economist (Director of the Research Department and Deputy Director-General) of the Bilbao Vizcaya Bank (BBV) and, after the merger, he took up this position in the Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Bank (BBVA) until 2003. Consultant for several multilateral organizations and member of the Executive Committee of the ICCBE (International Conference of Commercial Bank Economists) and of the Board of Directors of the AEEFI (Spanish Association of Economics and International Finance).

He has been a member of the Editorial Board of Expansión and of Actualidad Económica. He has worked on several projects with the media outlets El Mundo, 20minutes, Alnavío.com, El Independiente and La Informacion.com. He currently publishes a fortnightly column in El Español/Invertia and is a collaborator with La Sexta, Cadena SER and other media. Occasional consultant at GLG Research.

In the political sphere, he was coordinator of the Economic Program of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in the 2004 General Election and Director of "Economistas 2004". In 2004, he was appointed Director of the Economic Office of the President of the Government (with the rank of Secretary of State). In 2005, he was appointed Coordinator of the National Reform Program of Spain ("Mr. Lisbon"). In December 2006 he was nominated as the PSOE Candidate for the Mayoral Office of Madrid. In April 2008, he was appointed Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce of the Government of Spain during the 9th Legislature (December 2011).