Jean-François Aguinaga is Head of Unit at the European Commission.
He was trained in leading business schools (INSEAD; Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris). His PhD in roman languages and civilisations was received from the University of Paris, as well as his grade in public administration.
He joined the European Commission in September 1994, within a team in charge of economic co-operation with Latin America.
In 2002, he joined the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry (now DG GROW) as sherpa to elaborate and develop the financial instruments for SMEs (2007-2013), in liaison with the European Investment Fund (EIB Group).
Between 2006 and 2010, he was first responsible for the EIC network, then for the phasing-in of the Enterprise Europe Network, the biggest network of business and innovation services ever set-up with the support of the European Commission.
Between 2011 and 2015, he managed the Unit dealing with “textiles, fashion, design and creative industries” dealing with internal market and industrial policy topics.
In 2015 and 2016, he led the Unit in charge of European standardisation for growth.
Since January 2017, he has managed in DG RTD the Unit in charge of surface transports policy, which merged in 2019 with urban systems.