Lieutenant General Francisco José Gan Pampols He began to cut his teeth in the fight against the elements and nature early in his career in the Armed Forces. It started in Jaca, at the Military Mountain and Special Operations School (EMMOE). Many years later, he would climb the highest mountains on the planet and conquer both poles.
He now has a challenge that, in his opinion, is even greater: rebuilding Valencia devastated by DANA.
From his beginnings in the Pyrenees of Huesca, through Bosnia and Afghanistan, Gan Pampols has a career like few others in the armed forces that proves his solvency when it comes to managing large teams and complicated missions. But he is also a different soldier, complete in all aspects, and blessed with great physical and mental strength.
As a general who worked closely with him detailed to EL ESPAÑOL, the decision to Carlos Mazon to transform it into vice-president for economic and social recovery of Valencia after DANA it’s a success. “He has been on a staff, he knows how management works, he will bring order and consultation to the reconstruction, and he is used to leading very different and large-scale work teams.”
Gan Pampols benefited from the trust of those who led the Armies throughout his career.
As a general, he was sent to rebuild Afghanistan during the long decade Spain was in that country. This was also director of the Armed Forces Intelligence Center (CIFAS), the intelligence service applied to the Army. It is a position which practically has the rank of Secretary of State, like the director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI). “A position that the ministry does not offer to anyone,” say the sources consulted.
He has also been responsible for several United Nations and NATO missions. He was in Bosnia in the 90s, more recently, at the General Directorate of High Land Availability (CGTAD) in Bétera (Valencia), where his work “had a lot to do with direct relations with politicians”.
From that time, they remember his determination. “He is a very direct guy, who knew how to deal with the Government Delegation, with Mayor Rita Barberáwith the maritime captaincies, with the Generalitat… It was the institutional representation of the FAS in Valencia. He came back because in a way he became Valencian,” say the managers who worked with him at the time.
In 2022, he wrote a book called The art of leading well (Ed. Platform), a manual that transcended the purely operational work of the Armed Forces, full of advice for managing and directing any project with judgment.
It is for this reason, among others, that many consider him one of the most brilliant generals of recent decades. And if there’s one word that stands out when we talk about him, it’s “leadership”.
The mountain and the poles
One of the most unusual aspects of his life is linked to his love of adventure and climbing. It was this impulse that led him to conquer the North Pole, the South Pole and Everest years ago. He now holds the record for being the fifth mountaineer in the world to have achieved this feat.
Gan Pampols loves the mountains and photography. These are his main hobbies, which he cultivated in his free time before retiring and now, already in the reserve. These adventures are a continuation of his beginnings in Jaca, where he cut his teeth and learned to move through gorges and in more extreme temperatures.
General Gan Pampols, during one of his high mountain expeditions.
It was his father, it is said in the army, who introduced him to this hobby. to the magazine Note He told her that he had started climbing the Atlas in Morocco. “Lgame the Andes, the Himalayas… In 89, we went to Everest from the Chinese side, but we didn’t get there, there was a lot of snow and little chance of survival..
The following year, he did it again. In eight thousand, he lost a partner in a descent where there was a storm. “In 1992 we returned to Everest with On the verge of the impossible. Young people watched this program a lot and it showed that the military They were normal people capable of establishing relationships with anyone“, he stressed.
In 1995 he had the opportunity to travel to Antarctica, also with TVE. It was about reaching heights never before climbed. “We named them: one was the City of Jaca and the other, the Prince of Asturias. We arrived at the geographic south pole, after a lot of cold.”
His promotions have caused him to lose two knuckles over the years. One of the rare scars after decades of conquests and indelible memories in the snow.
The eight thousand people he now has in front of him, he says, constitute the greatest challenge he has ever faced. His first words on Tuesday were: “This is the most important task that has been offered to me.”
