Charles Powell has been Director of the Real Instituo ElCano since 2012 and Professor of Contemporary History at CEU San Pablo University since 2001.

Born in 1960 to an English father and Spanish mother, he holds a BA in History and Literature and a PhD in History from Oxford University. At Oxford University he was also Professor of Contemporary History at Corpus Christi College, J. A. Pye Fellow at University College and Junior Research Fellow at St. Antony's College. He has also been a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Portugal and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Between 1997 and 2000 he was Deputy Director of the European Studies Programme at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset, and subsequently Deputy Director of the Spanish Centre for International Relations of the José Ortega y Gasset Foundation (CERI). In 2001 he joined the Real Instituto Elcano as Senior Researcher for Europe, and in 2004 he was appointed Deputy Director of Research and Analysis. Throughout his professional life he has supervised eight doctoral theses and taught and lectured in more than 40 countries in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia.

Charles Powell is an Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy (2015), a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George of the United Kingdom (2017), and a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Romania (2020).