Juan Rovira De Ossó

After twenty-eight years working for various multinationals, he joined the ESADE Department of People Management and Organisation as Lecturer in 2011. He was the Founder and first Director of Universitas Telefónica, the Spanish telecoms corporate university. In 2005 he led the team responsible for defining Campus Universitas Telefónicas strategic model and design and implementing its launch. During his tenure as Director (2005-2010), Universitas Telefónica offered 17 programmes to more than 5,500 executives from the 23 countries where the company has a presence. From the outset, the focus of Universitas Telefónicas academic programme concentrated on developing leadership as a key element to create a new corporate culture, communicate the companys business strategy and encourage the exchange of ideas and practices between executives. Professor Rovira joined Grupo Telefónica in 1997 as Sub-Director General for Telefónica Internationals Business Development Area. He participated in defining and implementing the companys strategy for its expansion in specific Latin American and Caribbean countries. As a result of the latter, the Telefónica Centroamérica joint venture was created, and mobile phone services were implemented in Guatemala and El Salvador.

In 1999, he participated as Head of Strategic Development in the international expansion of Atento, Grupo Telefónicas call centre subsidiary. In 2001, he moved to Terra as Global Director of Human Resources from which he led the internet companys restructuring and integration in Telefónica. He was later named Sub-Director General for Telefónica in Catalonia. Before joining Grupo Telefónica, he worked in the banking sector for fifteen years, first for BBVA and then Banco Santander, working in the international and transactional banking areas. As Head of International Legal Services at BBVA, he was very active in the banks shares being traded in the leading markets around the world. Worth highlighting from his experience at Banco Santander are the design and development of e-banking and cash management services for companies. Currently, he is Vice Chair for Iberia at the Oxford Leadership Academy and a member of its international faculty.