Alberto Gago, new director of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence

Madrid, 19 December 2025. – At the proposal of the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, María González Veracruz, the Governing Board of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA) has approved the appointment of Alberto Gago Fernández as the new Director General of the public body responsible for ensuring the ethical and safe use of artificial intelligence in Spain.

Gago's appointment aims to usher in a new era at AESIA, consolidating its role as a tool for providing citizens with security and confidence in the use of artificial intelligence and promoting the responsible use of this technology.

The relevance of Gago's appointment stems from his in-depth knowledge of the Secretariat of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence since its creation in 2020, where he has recently headed the Spain Digital 2030 and Internationalisation Office. In this unit, he has promoted notable initiatives such as the National Quantum Technologies Strategy and the AI Sandbox, as well as the creation of the United Nations AI Governance for Humanity Lab in Valencia and the opening of the Open Source AI Community. The combination of practical, diplomatic and regulatory experience throughout his career places him in an ideal position to transform AESIA into a tool to support citizens in this new stage, as well as to project it as an international benchmark in the supervision and governance of artificial intelligence.

The new director general will take over from Ignasi Belda, who was responsible for launching AESIA, a pioneering institution in Europe, in June 2024. In this initial stage, in addition to taking charge of setting up the organisation at its headquarters in A Coruña, where the workforce will reach 55 employees in the next quarter, he has participated in the design of European AI policies, with Spain, through the agency, playing a very proactive role in some twenty EU working groups. Similarly, during this period, AESIA has collaborated in the creation of the first AI Sandbox, promoted by the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence. Also noteworthy, under Belda's leadership, is the launch of the citizen channel, which has received more than five hundred enquiries on the proper use of artificial intelligence.

Alberto Gago

Alberto Gago has a multidisciplinary background in Translation, European Law, Data Protection and International Relations, complemented by fluency in English and French. His professional career began at the European Commission, where he worked for eight years on the design of health policies — including the creation of the EU Health Policy Platform — and on the development of the European data framework, participating in the drafting of the Open Data Directive, the Data Governance Regulation and the Data Regulation. She also managed the Expert Group on the use of data for the public interest, consolidating her technical and regulatory experience in data governance.

Subsequently, for four years he was an advisor to the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, where he played a central role in the creation of Gaia-X Spain, the design and implementation of the AI regulatory sandbox, and the process of establishing AESIA. He actively participated in the negotiations of the AI Regulation during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

In his most recent role as director of the Spain Digital 2030 and Internationalisation Office, he has been instrumental in promoting and implementing the National Quantum Technologies Strategy, creating the United Nations AI Governance for Humanity Lab in Valencia, and representing Spain internationally in major global forums—the United Nations, the OECD, the G20 and the Council of Europe— as well as promoting cooperation initiatives with Latin America through SEGIB and the EU-LAC Digital Alliance.