Specialises in security, financial and energy trends in Europe and the Western Mediterranean. He has written on international capital markets for Euromoney and the Financial Times. He was the FT's North Africa Correspondent from 1981 to 1995 during which time he wrote and lectured extensively on energy security in Europe (Royal College of Defence, Chatham House and Ditchley Park, Ministère de la Défense), the US (Columbia, UCLA, Pentagon and World Bank), North Africa, Israel and Japan. He set up the Mediterranean Gas Markets conference in 1991. He will be analysing emerging trends in gas and linking them with Spanish, European and US policy priorities. Francis Ghilès is also a freelancer for newspapers including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, El Pais and La Vanguardia. He is a frequent commentator in the broadcasting media, notably the BBC World Service. He has acted as adviser to western governments (UK, France and the US) and to major European, American and Japanese corporations working in North Africa. In 2009, he helped coordinate and write the Maghreb Regional and Global Integration: A Dream to be Fulfilled report for the Peterson Institute in Washington DC (www.petersoninstitute.org). He has been awarded advanced degrees from St Antony's College, Oxford and the University of Keele. He graduated with distrinction from Sciences Po Grenoble.