Career Memorandum Example — Dr Elena Vasquez | Headhunters International

If your career has stopped fitting on two pages, you have the same problem as Elena.

You have the credentials, the transactions, the publications, the board work — and a CV format that compresses all of it into something smaller than you are. Recruiters miss the breadth. Search firms screen on keywords. Selection committees never see the evidence layer that would make the decision obvious. The Career Memorandum below shows what happens when a senior career is presented properly: scannable in five seconds at the top, fully evidenced underneath, every claim one click from its source. Read it the way a board chair would. Then ask whether your own CV is doing the same work.

< Dr Elena Vasquez — Executive Career Memorandum
Executive Career Memorandum Updated April 2026
Executive Career Memorandum · Prepared April 2026

Dr Elena Vasquez

Climate scientist and policy strategist. IPCC Contributing Expert (AR5, AR6). Director of Policy Programmes for Southern Europe and the Mediterranean at the European Climate Foundation. Scientific Advisor to the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition.

Based Madrid · Barcelona
Discipline Atmospheric Physics → Climate Policy
Languages ES · EN · DE · FR
Citations 1,840 · h-index 22
01 · IPCC AUTHORSHIP
AR5 + AR6
Contributing Expert to Working Group I — the Physical Science Basis — across two successive IPCC assessment cycles. (AR6 WGI, AR5 WGI)
02 · PUBLISHED RECORD
31 papers
Peer-reviewed publications in atmospheric physics and climate-policy interfaces. 1,840 Google Scholar citations, h-index 22.
03 · IBERDROLA — OFFSHORE DD
€3.2bn
Led scientific and policy due diligence on the offshore wind programme covering UK, Germany, France, and the Baltic states, 2016–2019.
04 · ECF — GRANT PORTFOLIO
€48m
Current portfolio under management across 22 countries at the European Climate Foundation, team of 14 direct reports.
05 · LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME
2 Spanish laws
Amendments to Spanish climate regulation adopted in 2022 and 2023, both directly influenced by scientific input from the €12m programme she designed and ran.
06 · GOVERNMENT ADVISORY
2020
Scientific Advisor to the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition — standing appointment, concurrent with the ECF role.

Executive Profile

Dr Elena Vasquez is an atmospheric physicist who built a serious academic record — 31 peer-reviewed papers, 1,840 citations, two successive cycles as a Working Group I Contributing Expert at the IPCC — and then left the academic ladder, in 2014, to put the science to work inside operating businesses and inside government.

Doctorate in atmospheric physics from the University of Barcelona (Cum Laude, Extraordinary Doctoral Prize). Postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, on aerosol-cloud interactions. Otto Hahn Medal in 2013. Research subsequently cited in the technical analysis underpinning the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework.

Joined Iberdrola Renovables in 2014 as the first atmospheric physicist on the leadership team of the group's 14GW renewables business. Built the climate strategy and policy desk from zero. Led scientific and policy due diligence on a €3.2bn offshore wind programme across the UK, Germany, France, and the Baltic states — Wikinger, Saint-Brieuc, and the early Lithuanian and Latvian seabed work. Sat as a mandatory sign-off on every Renovables investment-committee submission above €250m for five years.

Since 2019, Director of Policy Programmes for Southern Europe and the Mediterranean at the European Climate Foundation. Manages a €48m grant portfolio across 22 countries, leads a team of 14, has doubled the regional co-funder base, and ran the three-year €12m programme whose scientific submissions fed two amendments adopted into Spanish climate law in 2022 and 2023. Concurrent appointment, since 2020, as Scientific Advisor to the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition.

Working languages: Spanish (native), Catalan (native), English, German, French.

Career at scale.

Publications
31
Peer-reviewed papers, three as first author at postdoctoral stage.
Citations
1,840
Google Scholar citations across the published record; h-index 22.
Grant Portfolio
€48m
Current ECF portfolio under management, Southern Europe & Mediterranean desk.
Jurisdictions
22 countries
Countries within the current regional remit, from Portugal to Cyprus.
Direct Reports
14
Programme officers, grants managers, and regional policy leads across six locations.
Offshore DD
€3.2bn
Iberdrola offshore wind programme: UK Round 3, Wikinger, Saint-Brieuc, Baltic seabed.
Renewables Scope
14 GW
Iberdrola Renovables total generating capacity in scope during tenure as Director of Climate Strategy.
Legislative Outcomes
2 ES laws
Spanish regulatory amendments adopted in 2022 and 2023 with scientific input from her ECF programme.

Research to policy.

Concurrent · 2020 →
Scientific Advisor — Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition & Demographic Challenge
Standing scientific advisory appointment covering climate projection inputs to national policy. Contributes to draft legislation, inter-ministerial scientific panels, and cross-border consultations with EU Commission DG CLIMA.
Concurrent · IPCC
Contributing Expert — Working Group I (AR5, AR6)
Selected at postdoctoral level for AR5 (Fifth Assessment Report, 2013–14); re-selected for AR6 (Sixth Assessment Report, 2019–21). Contributions sit within Chapters 6 (Short-lived Climate Forcers) and 7 (Earth's Energy Budget).
Mandate on Appointment

Brought in to take over the Southern Europe and Mediterranean desk during the post-Paris, pre-Green-Deal transition. Brief was narrow and operational: design and deploy grant capital that moves Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and the littoral states from framework commitments into enforceable national legislation, and rebuild the standing scientific-advisory link between the regional research community and finance and environment ministries. The desk had turned over twice in three years; two of the largest institutional co-funders were considering exit.

  • Built and now runs the €48m regional grant portfolio across 22 countries with a team of 14 — disbursement discipline held at 92–95% across three full grant cycles (European Climate Foundation).
  • Designed the three-year €12m "Just Transition South" programme (2020–2023). Two regulatory amendments informed by programme-funded scientific submissions were adopted into Spanish law: one on just-transition obligations in coal-region reskilling, one on offshore wind spatial planning — both sitting under the framework of the Spanish Climate Change & Energy Transition Law (Ley 7/2021).
  • Rebuilt the scientific-advisory pipeline into the Ministry for Ecological Transition. Seven Spanish research institutions now contribute standing evidence submissions, up from two at the point of her appointment.
  • Appointed Scientific Advisor to the Ministry for Ecological Transition in May 2020 as a concurrent, unpaid role — held in parallel with the ECF directorship and declared on the standing conflicts register.
  • Doubled regional institutional co-funding. Foundation co-funders aligned to the Southern Europe strategy grew from 6 to 14 between 2020 and 2024, producing roughly €70m in additional matched capital over the three-cycle window.
  • Chairs the ECF Mediterranean Heat-Resilience Roundtable (quarterly, since 2022) — the only cross-border scientific-policy forum for the region convening at foundation-CEO and ministerial level.
  • Retains publication discipline. Two peer-reviewed papers on philanthropic-grant design for climate policy outcomes published 2021 and 2024, co-authored with colleagues at IESE Business School and Bocconi.
Mandate on Appointment

Joined in 2014 to build a function that did not exist inside the group: a climate strategy and policy affairs desk embedded within Iberdrola Renovables, the 14GW renewables arm of the Iberdrola group. Brief was to translate IPCC-grade physical-climate data into investment-committee language for offshore wind, onshore wind, and utility-scale solar deployment across Europe, and to lead scientific and policy due diligence on the UK, German, French, and Baltic offshore pipeline then in early development. Appointed as the first atmospheric physicist on the Renovables leadership team.

  • Built the climate strategy function from zero at Iberdrola — headcount of 8 at handover, established as a mandatory sign-off seat on every investment-committee submission above €250m.
  • Led scientific and policy due diligence on the €3.2bn offshore wind programme (2016–2019), covering UK Round 3 extension sites, Wikinger in the German Baltic, Saint-Brieuc in French waters, and early Lithuanian and Latvian seabed assessments.
  • Produced the first IPCC-scenario-aligned project-lifetime model used by Iberdrola's investment committee. Adopted internally as the benchmark against which every new-build renewables investment is stress-tested across 25- and 40-year horizons.
  • Represented Iberdrola at EU Commission roundtables on offshore wind permitting reform (2017–2019), submitting five written consultation responses that fed into the 2020 EU Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy.
  • Published three peer-reviewed papers during tenure (2015, 2016, 2018) — the only director-level scientist at a European utility to maintain an active publication record across the period.
  • Designed and launched the group-wide Climate Risk Disclosure protocol ahead of the 2017 TCFD framework going mainstream. Approach subsequently cited by two peer utilities as a reference implementation in their own first-year TCFD reports.
Research Programme

Three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. Research focus on aerosol-cloud interactions — specifically, the quantification of uncertainty that indirect aerosol effects introduce into decadal climate projections. The institute's aerosol-cloud work during this period fed into the CMIP5 ensemble underpinning IPCC AR5 and the uncertainty bounds subsequently adopted in the EU's 2030 emissions framework.

Doctoral Context

Doctoral programme at the Universitat de Barcelona, co-supervised with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Thesis on radiative forcing of mineral-dust aerosols in the Mediterranean troposphere — a topic at the working interface of atmospheric physics, regional climate modelling, and North African dust transport dynamics. Fully funded by a competitive FPU doctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education.

  • Thesis awarded Cum Laude and the Extraordinary Doctoral Prize (2011) — the University of Barcelona's highest doctoral distinction, awarded to fewer than 5% of candidates in the cohort.
  • Published four peer-reviewed papers during the doctorate, two as first author, one still cited in Mediterranean dust-transport modelling literature as a reference parameterisation.
  • Visiting researcher semester at ETH Zürich (Spring 2010), embedded in the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science.
  • Co-supervised by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) alongside the UB Department of Astronomy & Meteorology.
  • FPU doctoral fellowship recipient (2007–2011) — the Spanish national merit-based doctoral programme.

The credential stack.

2011 — 2014
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Aerosol-cloud interactions, CMIP5 contribution. Max Planck Society Otto Hahn Medal, 2013. Research cited in IPCC AR5 WGI and the EU 2030 framework technical analysis.
2007 — 2011
PhD Atmospheric Physics
Thesis on radiative forcing of mineral-dust aerosols in the Mediterranean troposphere. Cum Laude, Extraordinary Doctoral Prize. FPU doctoral fellowship holder.
2005 — 2007
MSc Climate Physics (with distinction)
Master thesis on regional radiative-transfer modelling, awarded the faculty prize for the top thesis of the cohort. Awarded university-wide research merit scholarship.
2010
Visiting Researcher Semester
Six months at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science during the doctoral programme, collaborating on Alpine aerosol-cloud field campaigns.
2013 · 2019
IPCC Contributing Expert (AR5, AR6)
Working Group I — The Physical Science Basis
Selected across two successive assessment cycles; standing contribution to chapters on short-lived climate forcers and Earth's energy budget.
2017
Executive Programme — Leading Sustainable Businesses
Three-week senior-executive programme covering climate-related financial risk, TCFD implementation, and board-level sustainability governance.

Scientific and geographic expertise.

Scientific & Policy Domains

  • Aerosol-cloud interactions & radiative forcing
    Postdoctoral specialism; cited contribution to CMIP5 parameterisation.
    2007 →
  • IPCC Working Group I process
    Contributing Expert across AR5 and AR6 assessment cycles.
    2013 →
  • EU 2030 emissions framework analytics
    Underlying research cited in the Commission's 2014 technical supporting analysis.
    2014 →
  • Utility-scale offshore and onshore renewables
    Scientific and policy due diligence at Iberdrola across UK / DE / FR / Baltic offshore.
    2014 — 2019
  • Climate-related financial risk disclosure (TCFD)
    Early implementation at Iberdrola ahead of mainstream adoption.
    2017 →
  • Climate philanthropy & grant governance
    €48m regional portfolio; disbursement discipline 92–95% across three cycles.
    2019 →
  • Just-transition policy design
    Three-year €12m programme informing two adopted Spanish regulatory amendments.
    2020 — 2023

Geographic & Regulatory Territory

  • Spain — Ministry for Ecological Transition
    Scientific Advisor; Spanish Climate Change & Energy Transition Law (Ley 7/2021) and subsequent amendments.
    2020 →
  • Mediterranean basin (22 states)
    Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and the North African and Levantine littoral within ECF scope.
    2019 →
  • United Kingdom — offshore wind regulation
    Round 3 extension due diligence at Iberdrola; Crown Estate Scotland engagement.
    2014 — 2019
  • Germany — BSH offshore permitting
    Wikinger due diligence in the German Baltic; retained working German from Hamburg postdoc years.
    2011 →
  • France — Ministère de la Transition Énergétique
    Saint-Brieuc offshore programme; permitting and grid-connection policy analysis.
    2014 — 2019
  • Baltic states — LT / LV seabed regimes
    Early-stage Lithuanian and Latvian offshore wind regulatory analysis at Iberdrola.
    2016 — 2019
  • EU Commission — DG CLIMA & DG ENER
    Consultation responses on offshore permitting reform (2017–2019); standing advisory contributions through ECF network.
    2014 →
SpanishNative
CatalanNative · Bilingual
EnglishWorking · IPCC & ECF internal language
GermanProfessional · Hamburg postdoc retained
FrenchWorking

Reach directly.

Phone +34 91 — on request
Based Madrid, Spain · Barcelona weekly
References

Named referees available on request. Standing referees include (by prior agreement) senior contacts at the European Climate Foundation, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, and the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition & Demographic Challenge.

Dr Elena Vasquez · Executive Career Memorandum · April 2026 Private & confidential