Juan Gutierrez has been director of the peace research center "Gernika of the Gogoratuz" since 1987. The center was created in the late 1980s to memorialize the city of Gernika, which was bombed by the German Legion CONDOR during the Spanish civil war, and to create a place for the scientific study of reconciliation and peace.

Dr. Gutierrez is a trained civil engineer and was a joint founder of the "critical university" in Germany. He has also worked as a translator and translated Rudolf Bahro and Claus Offe into Spanish.