Minister Nadal’s non-existent PhD

“I’m grateful for such a generous introduction. I must say I don’t often get such a kind introduction, so I’m doubly grateful”. These were the words with which Álvaro Nadal, Spain’s newly-appointed Minister for Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda, began his address. The year was 2012 and the deputy chairman of Spain’s Association of Managers and Executives (CEDE) had just mentioned Nadal’s Harvard PhD in his introduction. Adell’s mistake is easy to explain: reading Nadal’s cv, you could easily be led to believe that he actually holds a PhD. In fact, the same mistake has been made several times.

At many events Álvaro Nadal is introduced as “Dr Nadal” and he has never felt the need to right the error. This newspaper has been able to ascertain that Álvaro Nadal doesn’t actually hold a PhD from Harvard University.

There are several different versions of the new minister’s cv. The one on the Partido Popular’s web page states that Nadal went to Harvard “where he worked towards his PhD from 1997 to 1998”, which implies that he actually completed his doctoral studies over a two-year period. The information available on the Spanish parliament’s website —Nadal is an MP— is somewhat different: it states that “he was a PhD student at Harvard”. The only two instances when any mention to the Ivy League university vanished from his cv (or someone deleted it for him) were when Nadal joined the Spanish government’s finance team in 2011 and, again, when he was appointed minister only a few days ago.

Since the aforementioned CEDE conference in 2012, there have been several other events where Álvaro Nadal has been introduced as Dr Nadal. For instance, at an event hosted by Axis Corporate in June 2015 Nadal was introduced as “an ICADE law and business graduate with a PhD in international economics and industrial organisation from Harvard”. Four months later, at another CEDE event held in October 2015, Galicia’s Treasury Minister introduced Nadal with these words: “Álvaro Nadal completed his PhD at Harvard”. The Spanish minister never corrects his interlocutors and, given how frequently the mistake is made, Nadal has never made any attempt to clear up the muddle.

This newspaper has obtained a Harvard document which states that Álvaro Nadal took “a number of economy courses” there, but he was always enrolled in a “non-degree program”. In other words, courses that did not lead to a qualification. For privacy reasons, the university won’t provide further details.

A government scholarship

Another source of confusion surrounding Álvaro’s stint in Harvard is the belief that he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to fund his studies there. That is actually only half-true. In fact, it was a scholarship jointly awarded by the Fulbright Foundation and the Spanish government, but only the latter picked the recipient. It was José Manuel Fernández Norniella, then Deputy Minister for Commerce and Tourism, who actually decided to grant Nadal the scholarship, and a quick read of Spain’s Official Gazette dated 21 February 1997 will attest to that. In other words, Nadal received a government scholarship while he worked for the executive branch as an advisor to the Ministry of Industry and Energy. As stated by Nadal himself in his cv, he worked as a ministerial advisor in 1997 until he began working for the Ministry of Economy, also as an advisor. Therefore, his stay at Harvard took place between those two positions and can’t have been longer than a few months. This has been confirmed by a prominent Spanish economist who lives in the US and knows Nadal. This economist —who does not wish to be named— claims that “Nadal spent a few months at Harvard, he attended a few classes, but didn’t even hand in the first assignment and dropped out altogether”.

In the last few days the ongoing confusion has caused many news outlets to still refer to Nadal as “a Harvard PhD”.