Rafael Matesanz (Madrid, 1949) is a doctor, specialising in nephrology. He is Head of the Nephrology Section of the Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal de Madrid, on leave of absence; and founder and creator of the Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (ONT) in 1989, which he directed until March 2017.
He has been Director General of the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Salud (INSALUD), the Comisión Nacional Española de Nefrología and the Centro Nacional de Trasplantes y Medicina Regenerativa de España. He has received numerous awards, such as the Premio Rey Jaime I a la Investigación Médica (1999), the Gran Cruz de la Orden Civil de Sanidad by the Spanish Ministry of Health (2007) and the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de Cooperación Internacional (2010), awarded to the ONT and The Transplantation Society.
He is an honorary member of the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina and assessor of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for global strategies about transplants.