José Manuel Durão Barroso teaches at Católica Global School of Law as well as at the Institute for Political Studies at UCP, where he is the director of its Centre for European Studies. He is also LISD Policy Fellow and Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Visiting Professor of International Economic Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and an invited professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva. Former president of the European Commission, having served in this post for two terms between 2004 and 2014, as well as the former prime minister of Portugal (a post which he held from 2002 until 2004 when he was nominated by the European Council to the post of the president of the European Commission).

Having graduated in law from the University of Lisbon, Barroso went on to obtain a diploma in European studies at University of Geneva's European University Institute and a master’s degree in political science from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Geneva both. He is the author of numerous publications on political science, international relations and European studies.