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.
Ignacio Ruiz-Gallardón
MANAGER FOR ECONOMIC PUBLIC POLICY AT AMAZON SPAIN
We live in a time of technological, geopolitical and social revolutions, but we cannot make the mistake of believing that we are the first to experience such times. Throughout history there have been many moments of radical change and in each of them there have been people who have had the ability to stop, reflect and debate to find answers to problems that seemed to have no solution. For me, Aspen is the place where, through dialogue, the great reflections of our time are taking place. I am proud to be part of this community.
Julia Sánchez Abeal
CEO Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and Fundación Albéniz
Iñaki Sandoval
Pianist and composer
We have an individual and collective obligation to contribute to improving our environment, and to work for a better future for the new generations. Dialogue and debate, discuss ideas and positions contrasted from respect, with a constructive attitude, and a common desire for improvement and sustainable progress; that's how I understand Aspen España. Working to adapt to a constant change, but also being an active part and leader in this process, defending humanistic values such as solidarity, diversity and sustainable progress. My personal mission is to make the arts, culture and education play a leading role in this process of change, essential to build a better, fairer, and more beautiful society.
Salomé Santos
Agriculture Director of Azucarera
On all the occasions I could enjoy any of the Aspen España Seminars there has always been a common denominator: Aspen España always gives you an experience of personal growth. It may be a weekend Seminar in Segovia, a week in Ronda, a breakfast meeting or a virtual session. There is always a before and an after to the experience. Aspen España is to me a way of being in the world: a constant call to dialogue, reflection and action, which is forged through reading, access to the experience of others and the exploration of my own experience.
María Santoyo Santoyo
CEO, Curiosa, Director, EFTI Master of Photography; exhibitions curator
Aspen España has provided me with a privileged environment for dialogue with people as similar as disparate, a framework that gives us the opportunity to exchange thoughts, question them, expand them, from respect, time and listening. From these forums, I can say that a good question is worth more than a thousand answers. I usually write down everything that interests me in messy notebooks that I can barely decipher over time, but from which projects, articles, conferences, exhibitions, dynamics have arisen over the years to stimulate the creativity and critical thinking of my students, unrealized initiatives, multiple utopias. In them, there are several, references and hunted ideas taken from the Aspen España seminars.
José M. Sanz Magallón
Entrepreneur
I have known Aspen Institute for many years and had the opportunity to collaborate with some of its programs in the United States. In Spain, I have had the good fortune to attend their seminars, conferences, and working sessions, always of the highest level. One of the aspects I value most about the Aspen Institute is its multidisciplinary approach: it brings together people from different areas, such as business, philosophy, history, politics, public policy, etc., which allows a very enriching and constructive exchange of ideas. It is an honor to have been appointed as Aspen España Fellow and as such, I hope to continue contributing to its programs.
María Sicilia Salvadores
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY, ENAGÁS
Aspen España is a unique forum for collective exploration and discovery to better understand the challenges faced by our increasingly complex world. From my participation in the Aspen España Seminar I took many questions about the real impact of my professional and life experience on my environment and on society, and the conviction that dialogue always enriches us.
Christoph Steck
Director Public Policy Spain & Portugal at Amazon
I am convinced that innovation happens and the common good is enhanced when people engage and share diverse views. Today, when digitalization and climate change are disrupting our societies, we need more than ever new ideas that lead us to a better, more sustainable and value-based future. For me, Aspen España is a true gem, a refreshing oasis that shuts out the daily noise and gives me a chance to listen, reflect and grow.
Amanda Tabanera
Political Risk Specialist at Banco Santander
Aspen is a personal and intellectual refuge in a world where it is increasingly difficult to find forums for calm and respectful debate. It is that space that allows you to reflect and question those apriorisms that we all carry in our backpacks. Its events, in all their formats, are the best example that from initiatives like this we can create positive construction environments even with people with whom we have deep ideological differences. Undoubtedly the starting point from which to foster a better society, one that listens more, is more tolerant, and is capable of moving forward in the great challenges that lie ahead.
Manuel Torres
Executive Partner at Gartner
Aspen España is a space for free and serene dialogue in which the issues that concern us, the human beings, the most are addressed. Aspen España is also a place for friendship, literature, and music. It is, in short, a stronghold of the public sphere that, hopefully, would reach everyone.
Gonzalo Verdera
Alternatives' AM and Senior Advisor
Aspen Institute Spain manages to create spaces in which it is possible to share freely, without egos and with humility, our ideas, to debate about great questions and values, with the unexpected goal of finding that the doubts that arise unite us, that they are universal and shared. To enter an Aspen seminar is to enter a bubble, in which the how is more important than the what, in which active listening is to participate, in which the conversation with the texts, with others and with our inner self is what allows us to find and build the common good. A place that is a flash in the eye, about our social responsibility.
Luis Villa del Campo
Independent Consultant Stratrgy and Design and Lecturer at IE University
In the era of the algorithm, Aspen España is a shared space of inquiry, discovery, and wonder. Inquiry about the unanswered questions we, as Humans, have made ourselves through millennia. Discovery, when through dialogue, we unveil new personal meanings from written reflections from people who faced similar challenges during their times. Wonder when we realize we are part of a continuum that weaves people, time and space keeping the questions alive. Aspen España is a space to explore what does not change and no algorithm is able to codify: diversity, open dialogue, and friendship.