Joaquín Navarro-Valls (Cartagena, November 16, 1936 – Rome, July 5, 2017) attended the Deutsche Schule (German School) in his hometown.
He completed his medical studies at the Universities of Granada and Barcelona, and went on to study Journalism at the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the University of Navarra. He was also the recipient of a scholarship at the International Seminar at Harvard University (U.S.A.)
He graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1961 and pursued doctoral studies in Psychiatry, focusing on the topic “Psychiatric Disorders in Cranial Trauma.” He served as an assistant at the Faculty of Medicine.
In 1968, he graduated in Journalism, and in 1980, he earned a Degree in Communication Sciences.
He was a founding member and Deputy Director of the magazine DIAGONAL (1964), and foreign correspondent for Nuestro Tiempo (1972).
From 1977 to 1984, he served as foreign correspondent for Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean (Egypt, Greece, Israel, Algeria, Turkey) for the Madrid daily newspaper ABC. He also worked as a special envoy to Equatorial African countries, Japan, and the Philippines.
A member of the Board of the Foreign Press Association in Italy (1979), he was later elected President of the same Association in 1983 and 1984.
From 1984 to 2006, he served as Director of the Holy See Press Office.
He was a member of the Vatican Delegation at international United Nations conferences held in Cairo (1994), Copenhagen (1995), Beijing (1995), and Istanbul (1996).
From 1996 to 2001, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Maruzza Lefebvre d’Ovidio Foundation for terminal cancer patients.
He took part, as both speaker and moderator, in national and international congresses on Psychiatry and in numerous conferences on Journalism and Communication Techniques.
In 1996, he became a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Institutional Communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
In 2007, he became Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome.
In 2009, he was appointed President of the Telecom Italia Foundation.
From 2015, he served as President of the Board of Guarantors of the Biomedical University Foundation, affiliated with the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, following its growth and development alongside Paolo Arullani, President of the Foundation.
