06 May 2022
Bilbao Campus San Sebastian Campus Madrid Headquarters
The Women and Leadership Award already has its first winners. Avencia Sánchez-Mejías, entrepreneur and scientist, and Natalia Rodríguez Núñez, founder and CEO of Saturno Lab were the winners of the first and runner-up prizes, respectively. This recognition, promoted by Deusto Business School and Cinco Días with the support of Banco Santander, aims to highlight and promote women’s talent. More than 80 applications were submitted in this first year of the award.
Avencia Sánchez-Mejía has extensive experience in synthetic biology, human genetics and molecular oncology. She has worked with medical professionals in Spain, the United States and Singapore and is co-founder and CEO of Integra Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to building the next generation of gene editing platforms to cure diseases.
In turn, Natalia Rodríguez has a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the UPM and is a professional basketball player. She has won several awards, including being one of the Top 100 Women Leaders Spain, being on Forbes' 21 Change Makers and W Women list, the Alexa Prize and Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (2021) by the Madrid City Council.
Example of women
In view of the quality of all the applications received, the jury awarded a special mention to three women: Gloria Gubianas, CEO and co-founder of the company Hemper Handmade; Pilar Mañas Brugat, commander of the Air Force General Corps Officer Scale and several times decorated, including the Balmis operation commemorative medal to recognise the personnel involved in the fight against COVID-19 and Marina Jiménez Galindo, civil engineer, who is ranked fourth among the 35 most influential engineers in Spain. The jury also distinguished Cristina Burzako, CEO of Movistar+, as an example of female managers for future generations for her outstanding professional career.
The Women and Leadership Awards will be presented on 2 June at the Deusto Business School headquarters in Madrid.
Jury and requirements
The jury for the Women and Leadership Award is made up of Belén Frau (global communications director of IKEA and member of the company's global committee); Patricia Arias (regional director for the Basque Country - Santander Spain); Matías Alonso (vice-chairman of the Deusto Business School Board and retired Accenture managing partner -member of Global Leadership Council and Global Utilities Industry Lead); Mónica de Oriol (member of Deusto Business School Board and president and founder of Net4Things); Paz Álvarez (head of the Fortune section of the Cinco Días newspaper) and Almudena Eizaguirre (director general of Deusto Business School).
To be eligible for the Women in Leadership Award, applicants must have five or more years of professional experience, a higher education degree and an intermediate English level. In addition, when applying for the competition, candidates had to send their CV and a letter of motivation outlining their five-year career plan, as well as a letter of recommendation.
When choosing the winners, the jury took into account aspects such as excellent professional performance; committed behaviour towards the company and society; having participated in or promoted sustainable or innovative projects; applying good management practices in professional activity or having participated in projects or activities that demonstrate a commitment to a fairer, more prosperous and inclusive society.
The first prize consists of a free registration fee for the Executive MBA and the runner-up prize, 60% of the registration fee.
