Biography
Joining the IWA as Global Operations Director, Maite leads her team in providing structure and support to our growing Association in the areas of Finance, Corporate Governance, Human Resources, Legal Affairs, Diplomatic Relations and the development of our Regional Offices. With her PhD in Business Law from University Deusto (Spain) – University Heidelberg, and an MBA and MBI from the University Deusto Business School – University of Cambridge Judge Business School, Maite brings more than 15 years of leadership and executive experience to IWA in the fields of Strategic Business Innovation, Governance and Operational management, Business Planning, P&L Management and Talent development in the private and public sectors. Maite is passionate about innovation, strategic orchestration (partnering) and talent development as drivers for new value creation in organisations. Focusing on these three areas she creates new value propositions, economic growth, high impact teams and corporate sustainability. Maite’s abilities in 5 languages (Spanish, English, French, German and Italian) and working-knowledge in Dutch and Basque enable her to communicate within the growing geographies of IWA.
Maite has a deep understanding of the workings of large corporate organisations and the impact of business cycles; how to boost P&L and business development; the importance of innovation &and communication-branding, building networks, and the need to attract and retain talent to foster robust business partnering. She has practiced globally across Europe, USA, Canada, Latin America and China at Schneider Electric, Abengoa and at the Embassy of Peru in the Netherlands. She has held leading roles, directly or cross-functionally, in all aspects of large corporations: Innovation and R&D Programs, Strategic Business Planning (McKinsey 3H ) and Business Development, Finance, Risk, Tax, HR and Legal support.
Since 2014, she also holds a position as guest lecturer of strategy & innovation at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, University Deusto (Spain), and Centrum Católica University (Perú).
