The UPF Barcelona School of Management (UPF-BSM) yesterday presented the Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 award to the executive chairman of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, in recognition of the sustainable transformation that the company has led and his role key in the global technological green transition. The event was attended by more than a hundred managers, such as the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre; the president of the Economic Circle, Jaume Guardiola, and his predecessors Juan José Brugera and Salvador Alemany; the president of the Fair, Pau Relat, and the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras.
Álvarez-Pallete received the award from the rector of the UPF, Laia de Nadal, who defined him as a “catalyst for change” that “promotes initiatives that go beyond traditional management”.
In his acceptance speech, the manager highlighted the “unprecedented challenges” posed by technology in the new digital age. “85% of the professions that will exist in 2030 do not yet exist. Europe needs a massive retraining of professionals”, he warned. Álvarez-Pallete defended that “100 million people will have to reinvent themselves in the next decade”, for which education will be key.
José Manuel Martínez-Sierra, director general of the UPF-BSM, defended that “you learn from the academy, but also, and not least, from example”, and considered the president of Telefónica as “a clear role model to be followed by the leaders of the future that we are training and whose aim is to build a better world”. In the previous edition, the awardee was José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, president of CaixaBank, in recognition of his leadership in the merger with Bankia.
The president of the UPF-BSM and ex-rector of the UPF, Jaume Casals, praised the merits of the awardee, who he considered as “one of the great managers of our recent history”, who has turned Telefónica into “an example of the transformation from an analog company to a digital one”. In his opinion, the manager “has been able to lead one of the most spectacular transformation and sustainable modernization processes of the last 15 years, until turning Telefónica into a global multinational”.
Casals highlighted the effort that has made the company a “leader in the deployment of the 5G network in Spain, especially in the rural world”, which represents a “fundamental milestone in improving people’s quality of life”. The professor thanked the manager and his team for their efforts “to build a better society in which technology, sustainability, people, education and commitment to the needs are at the center of decision-making”.
In his speech, Álvarez-Pallete highlighted the work of the 100,000 employees who make up the company around the world, and the responsibility of the company, which is about to turn 100 years old, as the “motor of societies”. The company, he recalled, now has 380 million customers in 12 countries, and already has the largest fiber network outside of China.
Álvarez-Pallete also highlighted the role of Barcelona as the world capital of the telecommunications sector. “I have always said it and I will always say it: there is no better place to celebrate our congress. And for that reason, we always advocated that it should be celebrated here. Today it is, without a doubt, the epicenter and symbolic reference of communications and innovation on an international scale”.
