Aspen España Fellows
Our Fellows share their experiences in Aspen.
What is Aspen Institute España for you?
Aspen España Fellows
Aspen Institute España selects each year from its network of Alumni those who have excelled during their participation at the seminars to become candidates for the Aspen España Fellows Program.
The Aspen Institute Alumni Network is an engaged community of people actively participating in our educational and policy studies events, providing important input for our activities, and helping sustain our mission to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues.
The creation of the Aspen Institute España Fellows Program joins the network of committed Aspen alumni with the mission of Aspen in Spain and offers its members the opportunity to join the international Network of Aspen. Aspen Fellows may be trained to become moderators of Aspen seminars and have access to other programs and seminars of The Aspen Institute. Thus, their role as representatives and ambassadors of Aspen España is encouraged.
Guillermina Ester
Partner of Pérez-Llorca
The three ideas that come to my mind when I think of Aspen España are: the act of listening, taking perspective and diversity. To me, Aspen España is a place to enhance the ability to listen and of understanding what the other is thinking. In Aspen España you put yourself in someone’s shoes. The debates generated at Aspen España help me in the process of reflection and grounding the information, in the idea that there is nothing without a solution. That is why I believe that Aspen España is also a place to focus on ideas from different angles. Finally, Aspen España is diversity, diversity of approach, perspective and talent. I enjoy very much and I feel very comfortable in this atmosphere of plurality that is created in the discussions at Aspen España.
Pablo Esteves
Managing Partner, Emzingo
To me, Aspen España is a space, an experience, and a forum. It is a space for reflection, to explore different points of view, to develop, test, and question ideas -both new and old. It is an experience that invites dialogue, to listen to others and to oneself. In an Aspen experience one learns and teaches, laughs and cries, debates, listens and shares in a safe and welcoming space. And it is a forum where the intellect grows, is nurtured and inspired, and, without a doubt, is exercised and renewed.
Lucía Gandarillas
Manager of Public Sector Consulting at Accenture
Aspen has made me aware of the talent that exists in our society and reminded me of the importance of remaining humble, willing to listen openly to others and acknowledge my biases.
It has been a gift to discover books that I would not otherwise know exist, thanks to the varied texts in the seminars, and to meet interesting people from different disciplines to reflect and learn from.
I feel privileged to participate and I trust that this experience is strengthening my tolerance and values professionally and personally, to live life in a more equitable and committed way with people and the planet.
It has been a gift to discover books that I would not otherwise know exist, thanks to the varied texts in the seminars, and to meet interesting people from different disciplines to reflect and learn from.
I feel privileged to participate and I trust that this experience is strengthening my tolerance and values professionally and personally, to live life in a more equitable and committed way with people and the planet.
Javier García Toni
Director of Cabinet of the Vice-Secretariat of Culture and Spokesperson of the Partido Popular
Aspen has always been a halfway point between respite and balm. Not only for the readings, the sessions, the reflection or the shared values; but for the opportunity to break away from a frenetic, though always fun, day-to-day life to find the things that matter. Bonds, learning and the ability to understand the deeper meaning of many of the things we did flourished. If there were springs, which there were, they were always better in any of the Aspen activities. I understood this from my first visit, a few years ago, to this very interesting place -Aspen Spain- from which I hope to continue learning every day.
Román Gil Alburquerque
Partner, Sagardoy Abogados, Professor, University of Navarre & IE Law School
Aspen España for me is the possibility of dialogue, dialogue itself and the fruit of dialogue. It is the conversation with friends, with history and with myself. It is humanism and joy of life. It is reflection and enthusiasm, texts and humor, benevolence and passion. It is a duty the possibility of being as it must be and a real being.
Joaquín Güell Ampuero
Senior Advisor of Investindustrial and President of the Joan Boscà Foundation
Aspen Institute España is the place where I don't always change my mind, but where I almost always change the subject and the arguments: sometimes, because my interlocutors are from another generation, discipline, orientation or nationality; sometimes, because the focus and method of the debates force me to revise concepts and prejudices. A place of freedom and trust, without hierarchies, where intellectual complicity is fostered - undoubtedly even more important than consensus.
Nacho Herrera
Director of Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda
Many forums have programs dedicated to leadership and dialogue. Aspen, uniquely, adds a third element to the mix, with its emphasis on action. This leads to an institutional focus on impact which has immense potential in its pragmatism when complemented by the approach described by Aspen's founder as “intended to help a leader gain access to his or her own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and more self-fulfilling.” Aspen's roots in the arts and humanities are important: the use of readings and theatre in seminars, for example, is tremendously powerful, with a lasting impact on participants. This potential for impact can, I am sure, secure Aspen a greater role in contributing to our society.
Miguel Herrero de Jaúregui
Professor, Greek Philology of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Conversing is necessary because the first thing that an Aspen España moderator says is that it is much more important to listen than to be thinking about what you are going to say. Conversation in Aspen España is also horizontal. Everyone participanting in the seminar contributes diverse perspectives and different interests, with the same texts serving as the common thread. It is also diachronic; it also feeds back into the people who wrote those texts and what they were thinking at the time. It is a conversation with many different dimensions that is never the same. Like a jazz orchestra that will never play the same song twice.
Álvaro Imbernón
Director, Strategy and Foresight Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation
He is a political scientist specialized in European affairs and International Relations currently working at the Secretariat of State for the EU. He also teaches European integration and international political economy at Nebrija University and other educational institutions. He has recently served as an advisor on international and economic affairs at the Vice-Presidency of the Spanish Government and as a researcher on political risk and foresight at ESADEgeo. In the past, he has worked as a consultant in Belgium, Myanmar, and Japan and has collaborated with the United Nations University and pan-European think tanks such as the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and FEPS.
José Ramón Iturriaga
Partner at Abante Asesores
How can it be that the shared review of more or less classic but current readings can provide so much enjoyment?
That is Aspen España to me. Huge enjoyment.
Come away with more questions than answers. A gift in the shape of time for oneself from which if not wiser, you do come out more open-minded.
And this, in these times, is tremendously valuable.
That is Aspen España to me. Huge enjoyment.
Come away with more questions than answers. A gift in the shape of time for oneself from which if not wiser, you do come out more open-minded.
And this, in these times, is tremendously valuable.
Lara Jiménez de Parga
Lecturer in Philosophy of Law at the University of Barcelona and Senior Design Researcher
Aspen is for me a space for reflection and dialogue that allows me to distance myself from everyday life and reconnect with my values. These are moments when I can stop and understand what the speed of everyday life only allows me to intuit. This connection with what matters most is produced by conversing with the text and with others, by recognizing myself in apparently foreign experiences and listening to ideas that are different from my own. When everything leads us to reinforce our beliefs, Aspen opens up a space in which to question them and remember that it is not about being right but about being able to think and live together.
Isabelle Le Galo Flores
Deputy Director for Spain, Fundación Daniel & Nina Carasso
For me, Aspen España is a place to imagine together and think without borders. There are few places with these characteristics and there has not been such an urgent moment to have them and take care of them. Through dialogue between our very diverse ways of understanding and feeling, we build together another vision of the world, richer and more common. It is a profound experience that transcends the cognitive biases of our individualities and that gives life to a germ of real cooperation between different people, entities and ideologies. And those are for me two masterpieces for solving the social and environmental challenges that our world faces today.