Javier Santiso

Who is Javier Santiso?

Javier Santiso is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Professor of Economics at ESADE Business School and Managing Director at Telefónica. He is the Founder of Amerigo, the $350 million Venture Capital Funds Network in Europe and Latin America powered by Telefónica and the Founder of Startup Spain, the leading platform on startups and ventures powered by ESADE Business School and Rafael del Pino Foundation.

Javier holds both Spanish and French nationalities,. He is a leading economist on emerging markets, startups and venture capital. He has authored several books and papers published in leading referee journals and edited books published by Columbia University Press, Oxford University Press or Routledge. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Council on Latin America. In 2011 he was named as one the most influential iberoamerican thinkers by Foreign Policy.

A disciple of Albert O. Hirschman, his contributions deal with international political economy issues, focusing mostly on the impacts of China on Emerging Economies, the relations between financial markets and elections in emerging countries and sovereign wealth funds portfolio diversification towards emerging markets. He has been consultant for leading international organizations like the Inter-American Development Bank, private banks and member of advisory boards on emerging markets for Pfizer and Lazard Frères Gestion. He also advised governments on sovereign wealth funds reforms and leads at ESADEgeo a major annual report on sovereign wealth funds with a special focus on Latin America and other emerging markets.