Fernando de Cuadra was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1961. He received the B.S+M.S. (1985), and Ph.D. (1990) degrees in Industrial Engineering, and an Executive MBA (2010) degree at Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid (Spain). At Comillas he is Full Professor, and from 2001 to 2010 he was the Dean of the ICAI School of Engineering. His research includes simulation and direct-search optimization applied to aerospace, railways, and power systems. In 2016, he joined the Universal Energy Access Lab, a MIT-Comillas joint research group, working in the design and specification of general models, methods, and tools for large-scale electrification planning.