CEN-CENELEC Director General

Elena Santiago Cid has been the Director General of CEN (European Committee for Standardization) and CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) since 1 January 2010.

In this role, she is responsible for the direction and management of the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre, providing executive support to the activities of the General Assemblies and Administrative Boards (CAs) of CEN and CENELEC, and CEN and CENELEC advisory committees. She manages the institutional relations with the European Commission and EFTA, and is responsible for the relations with CEN and CENELEC’s European sister organization ETSI, being a member of the Joint Presidents Group (JPG). In the international arena, Mrs. Santiago Cid is a member of the Management Coordination Group (MCG) of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).

Prior to her current function, Mrs. Santiago Cid was the Director General of CENELEC, a position she assumed on 1 September 2003.

Preceding her appointment at CENELEC, Mrs. Santiago Cid was Director External Relations at AENOR, the Spanish member of ISO, IEC, CEN and CENELEC. An executive member of the AENOR Board, she negotiated and led technical assistance programmes in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. From 1996 – 1998, Mrs. Santiago Cid was seconded to the European Commission as Spanish national expert in DG Enterprise and Industry. Her responsibilities included electrical safety and the management of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Drive.

From 1992 to 1996, she was secretary of the Spanish Electrotechnical Committee and the Spanish permanent delegate of the CENELEC Technical Board.

Mrs. Santiago Cid received a degree in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, which included an Erasmus project at the University of Augsburg, Germany.