Governance

Carmelo Sanz de Barros is the President of the Royal Automobile Club of Spain (RACE), President of RACE Foundation, President of UN CIFAL centre, and President of the FIA Senate (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile). 

Studied Economics with several postgraduate courses from Harvard University and Michigan State University, Carmelo Sanz de Barros has a longstanding career of over 40 years in the financial, IT, healthcare and mobility sectors, working in various countries in Europe, Asia and in Latin-America. 

During this time, he worked during 10 years in Banking at Lloyds Bank (3 years) in the UK, after he has been CEO of Becton & Dickinson for Spain, Portugal and Latin-America as well as corporate officer in USA. He has also been President of the Spanish Health Technology Business Trade Association, FENIN, belonging to CEOE, that gathers more than 1.600 enterprises in that sector. 

President of RACE since 2011, the Spanish leading institution in the protection and public advocacy of the road users interests on a national and international level. 

Since 2021 he is also President of the RACE Foundation, whose founding goals are the preservation of the history and evolution of the automobile, the development of mobility and road safety social awareness and campaigns and the capacity building of public authorities and international leaders through CIFAL Madrid RACE Centre, a United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR – ONU). 

In December 2021 he was elected President of the FIA Senate, the top-ranked body of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, that is responsible for its general management and corporate policy, good governance, commercial development, finance, and budgetary stability. The FIA, is nowadays a global organization gathering 241 automobile clubs and national federations representing more than 80 million road users in 146 countries, that organizes and promotes the Formula 1 - as well as the whole of the Automobile World Championships -. Along with the International Olympic Committee and the FIFA, the FIA it is one of the three main international sports organizations. 

Last 16 october 2025 The Spanish Minister of the Interior, awarded the Road Safety Merit Medal to Carmelo Sanz de Barros, in recognition of his outstanding career to promote road safety and driver training, both in Spain and internationally.