Mr. Villalba holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from National University of Distance Education of Spain (UNED), with a dissertation on the organisation of national cybersecurity. He holds a Master's degree in “Analysis and Management for Public Policy” fromUniversity Carlos III of Madrid.

Mr. Villalba has been Adviser on Foreign Policy and International Security to two Prime Ministers of Spain (PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Feb. 2009 - Dec. 2011; and PM Mariano Rajoy Brey, Jan. 2012 - Sept. 2013). Formerly, he has been a professor on Strategy and International Relations in the General Staff Course of the Armed Forces in Spain (2001-2005).

Led by Javier Solana, he was a member of the core planning team to elaborate the first National Security Strategy in Spain (2011).

Mr. Villalba has led the planning process for the National Cybersecurity Action Plan (2014).

Mr. Villalba has published twenty-two articles and book chapters related to Intelligence, International Security, Terrorism, and Cybersecurity. The latest publication in 2017 has been “Analysis on cyber threats”, in the book “Cybersecurity: public–private cooperation”, published by “Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies”.