EAE Business School honours Paloma Fernández Monroy, General Director of the jewellery firm Suarez, for her leadership and career at the first EAE Alumni Awards
EAE Business School has once again held its EAE Alumni Annual Meeting, with the slogan “Navigating the Future”. The event welcomed more than 400 of the business school’s former students to the Mutua Madrileña Auditorium in Madrid, as well as over 100 people who followed the event live online.
Taking advantage of this annual gathering, this year’s event included the presentation of the first edition of the EAE Alumni Awards, which are given in recognition of executive and entrepreneurial alumni in the fields of innovation and social commitment, as well as partner companies.
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In the Professional Career category, the award went to the EAE graduate Paloma Fernández Monroy (MBA & Master in Sales Management 2014 & 2022), the General Director of Suarez, one of Spain’s most iconic jewellery brands. She has held this position since September 2023, building on a solid career within the company, previously having led various areas including Operations and Sales Management. With this award, EAE highlights the Suarez executive’s ability to lead transformation processes, adapt to market changes and reposition Suárez as a benchmark brand in contemporary jewellery, while maintaining its artisanal and family essence. “I have a commercial spirit. I am a fighter who stands up for teams, stays very close to the customer and starts every day with great enthusiasm,” she commented when receiving the award.
Paloma Fernández Monroy went on to add that “education never ends. Opportunities will come along but, if we are not ready, they will slip through our fingers,” before acknowledging that “it requires effort, with commitment and resilience, as well as being prepared to fail, because life is not easy.” At the head of a family business with over 80 years of history, she emphasized that “behind every piece of jewellery there is an emotion and a person who makes it possible. The true driving force of our company is the team, who work around the world in the workshops, offices, stores and, of course, the Suárez family.”
Meanwhile, the EAE Alumni Award in the Partner Company category was presented to IBM. The leading tech multinational works with EAE Business School to train and upskill students in the latest technologies and innovative developments, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and advances in quantum computing. Cristina Marqués Villena, the Academic Sector Leader for Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel, collected the award on behalf of the company.
Next, in the EAE Entrepreneurial Alumni category, the award went to Juan Carlos García Carrizo (EMBA 2023), CEO & Co-Founder of Articae Smart Technologies. Graduating as a Technical Telecommunications Engineer from the Universidad de Valladolid, García Carrizo’s has built a successful career specializing in energy efficiency. He founded his company Articae Smart Technologies, which develops technologies to optimize the energy efficiency of HVAC and refrigeration systems using CoP monitoring and AI.
Lastly, the EAE Alumni Award in the Greatest Social Impact category was presented to Galo Zapata (Global Master in Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility 2023), the President and founder of Voluntarios.pe. With qualifications in business management, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, Zapata created the Voluntarios.pe platform five years ago to connect collaborative initiatives with communities, companies and civil society.
EAE ALUMNI ANNUAL MEETING 2025
Participants were welcomed to the latest edition of the EAE Alumni Annual Meeting by the President of EAE Alumni and SMB Commercial Director at Lyreco Spain, Ramón Abella, who then introduced the event’s keynote speaker, Elsa Punset. A Spanish writer, outreach speaker and philosopher, Punset is a trailblazer in Spain in the application of emotional intelligence as a tool for positive change.
In her talk entitled “Proposals for Living in Extraordinary Times,” Punset discussed how technology and science have been essential to “improve the world and our lives,” among other topics. She emphasized that “technology presents us with major challenges such as managing AI, the difficulty of working with each other, and mental health problems,” adding that “we have to be more human than ever and reflect on the impact we have on the Earth.”
Moreover, through a number of games and questions for the audience, Punset gave an introduction to neuroscience, indicating that “humans are very much slaves to our brains, which tend to remember the negative more than the positive.” This makes it crucial to be optimistic and surround ourselves with upbeat people. Lastly, the keynote speaker concluded her presentation with a series of recommendations for boosting emotional intelligence: “learn to balance stress with recovery” to enhance emotional well-being; “discover the secret of good relationships, as for every negative emotion, we need five positive ones”; and “take care of each other, because there is not a single kind of health for humans and for the planet.”
ALUMNI ROUND TABLE
The event also featured a round table discussion panel entitled “Navigating Change with Strategy and Innovation,” moderated by Pablo Medina, the Business and Talent Area Director at EAE Madrid. The panel included alumni Fabián Urriago Guzmán (Global MBA 2018), the Director of Knowledge Management at Pérez-Llorca Colombia; Jorge Aldegunde (Executive MBA 2022), the Global Head of Railway at DNV; Claudia Ajo García (Executive MBA 2024), the Technology Strategy Senior Manager at Accenture; and Victoria Mayo Caballero (Master in Human Resources Management and Talent Management 2016), the People Analytics & AI Manager at NTT Data.
With this latest edition, the EAE Alumni Annual Meeting has consolidated its status as a key platform for sharing knowledge and experiences among leaders from different sectors. Each year, EAE Business School reaffirms its commitment to professional success, networking and lifelong learning, creating spaces of inspiration for its alumni.