Joan Clos, Spanish anesthesiologist and politician, 116th Mayor of Barcelona

Joan Clos i Matheu, GCIH is a Spanish politician who was mayor of Barcelona, Spain from September 1997 to September 2006. He took over from Pasqual Maragall in 1997. In 1999 he was elected to a four-year term, and was then re-elected in the municipal elections of 25 May 2003. In September 2006, he left Barcelona Town Hall, after nine years of office, as he was appointed Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. After a stint as the Spanish Ambassador in Turkey and Azerbaijan, in 2010 he was appointed as executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, (UN-HABITAT), and Under Secretary General of the United Nations. Joan Clos is also president of the Spanish Chapter of The International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI).

This is a list of mayors of Barcelona since 1835. The Mayor of Barcelona is the highest political authority of the Barcelona City Council. In accordance with Organic Law 5/1985, of June 19, on the General Electoral Regime, the mayor or mayoress is elected by the municipal corporation of councilors, who in turn are elected by universal suffrage by the citizens of Barcelona with the right to vote, through municipal elections held every four years. The candidate who obtains the absolute majority of the votes is proclaimed elected. If none of them obtains said majority, the councilor who heads the most voted list is proclaimed mayor.