” The things I love the most are the ones that start with a brilliant idea, and they get to become reality as a result of the invaluable work and help of my team. That process sometimes seems to be magic and irresistibly fun, so I fight each day of my life for that to happen to the people around me.”
If I had to describe myself in one word, it would be “Imagineer” (Imaginative - Manager - Engineer). In my professional activity I am focussed on corporate strategy, leadership and Open Innovation.
That´s why I think I got involved in Engineering - I love to solve challenging problems -, Innovation - I always find myself solving them in a different way -, and Management - because Human relationships are the most difficult problems in the world without any doubt.
1. what I know and where I learnt it
I graduated with honors from College in Spain. Then I started studying Electrical Engineering in Politecnica University, Madrid (2004). In 2007, I took two summer session courses at University of California at Berkeley (Marketing and Organizational Behavior). A year later, I took the “Electronic Commerce Strategies” course at Harvard University Summer School. I graduated from Electrical Engineering in 2010 with a master in “Technology management”.
I have focused my studies in the Open Innovation area, working on the creation of fast internet global impact projects, highly scalable and crowdsourced. I am passionate about studing why some projects tip and others not, and what are the “rules” that make an organization work in the new internetworked era.
2. Projects I believe in
“Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:16
I´ve been involved in the several projects in my professional career, where I had the luck to meet the best workmates and colleages that I am sure that many of them will last forever.
CURRENTLY WORKING ON:
Floqq, the useful lifelong learning
Álvaro is proud of being considered by the Floqq as Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, where he is committed to help the team grow and achieve their personal goals while meeting company’s objectives.
Floqq is a marketplace for continuous learning that is starting to operate in Spain by March 2012. The objective of Floqq is to become the leading employment generator company by providing updated, demanded and to the point continuous learning.
Learn what you need now and nobody is teaching you.
PROJECTS I WAS INVOLVED IN THE PAST:
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IMAGINE CC, Ideas to change the world
Imagine Creativity Center is a center that identifies problems and suggests World Changing solutions. The ideas will be pursued by multidisciplinary team which will work in the Silicon Valley environment for one month.
I´ve participated as a “dreamer” in the first edition of Imagine creativity center during July 1011, working for “The future of advertisement. How brands will meet consumers” sponsored by McCann.
+info: www.imagine.cc
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CAMPUS PARTY
Considered the most important event about innovation, technology, internet and digital leisure in the world.
To date there are four annual editions of the event: Spain, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Special events like Campus Party Europe take place some years, and it is planning to arrive to the US in 2012.
I´ve been Product Manager of Futura Innovation , the new open innovation business since April 2010 to May 2011. My mission was to create and develope this Open Innovation product in Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.
www.futuranetworks.com (Spanish)
NetDay: Inspiring Stories…
netday is a non-profit project whose mission is “develop tomorrow´s society, inspiring the future of todays youth”. With that objective, netday has created the major innovator´s distributed community in Spain and holds monthly events where innovative youngsters interact with internet referents and leading companies that are making a change in society thanks to their work.
I am co-founder and member of the board since 2009. In this project we have created an open structure with more than 20 volunteers in three different countries (Madrid - Silicon Valley - Dublin). We consider ourselves a “cloud net organization” where there is not a fixed hierarchy and each one decides how he/she wants to get involved and in which role. Passion, respect and commitment are the key.
+Info: www.netday.co
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Yuzz: The young talented people contest
Yuzz is a talent contest for youngsters between 18 and 30 with technological ideas. The prize of this contest consist of spending 6 months in a high performance incubator in Spain, where the ideas get impulsed by experts, mentorship, etc. The 10 best projects in Spain travel to Silicon Valley to visit the area and get contacts there.
Netday was winner of Yuzz program in 2010 (the first edition of the program) and we traveled to Silicon Valley to develop our project. Nowadays, we keep involved in several innovation projects with Banesto Foundation related to entrepreneurship and innovative ideas.
+info:
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International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience.
The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE A.s.b.l) is an Association of National Committees representing Academic, Industrial and Student interests. Each Member and Co-operating Institution is responsible for the administration of the exchange in its own country.
I was member of the board and President of IAESTE Spain (ETSIT) between 2008-2009. The association had more than 15 students working actively, organized language courses for +500 students per year and exchanged +15 internships globally for Electric Engineers.
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3. Academic Experiences:
I´ve been teaching Open Innovation at the European School of Design since 2011, in the Strategic Design Labs Master.
Its objective is to train people capable of configuring a strategic vision, learning new ways of looking and thinking from a design perspective. Autonomous professionals capable of leading projects and proposing effective initiatives in companies.
http://mastersofdesignandinnovation.com/
If you want to contact me, yo can push the “ask me” button on the right sidebar, or send me a message to:
textme@alvarosanmartin.com
Twitter: @alvarosanmartin
