Jacinto Soler Matutes holds a PhD in International Law and Economics from the University of Barcelona (UB), with a doctoral thesis on foreign investment in China, under the supervision of the former Dean of China-Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Prof. Alfredo Pastor.
Prior to his Doctorate, he did postgraduate studies on emerging economies at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and the Kiel Institute of World Economics (Germany).
He has published several books and studies on emerging economies such as China, India, and Arab countries. He has been an Associate Professor at the School of East Asian Studies of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) between 2006 and 2013 and Associate Professor for International Trade & Investment from 2020 to 2025 at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation of the UAB University in Barcelona.
He has also taken part in several consultancy projects in cross border trade and investment between Europe and emerging markets as a partner in the firm Emergia Partners, involving companies and entities such as Abertis (Spain), Atlantia (Italy), Hochtief (Germany), Algeciras Port (Spain), Osborne Group (Spain), Chongqing Kangde Group (China), Sinovel (China), SSMI (China), Skanray (India), Sankar Sealings (India), etc
Since 2010, he has held several positions at PIMEC, the Catalan SME employers’ organisation, now being the Director for International Relations and EU Affairs. In this capacity, he represents PIMEC at several working committees, such as the Economic and Fiscal Committee (ECOFIS) of the European SME Confederation SME UNITED in Brussels.
From October 2025, Jacinto is a member of European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) within Group 1 (employers’ representatives) for a period of 5 years.
Besides Spanish and Catalan, Jacinto is proficient in English, French, Italian and German, while he has a basic knowledge of Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese.