The University of Chicago Alumni Club of Spain

As most of you do already know, a new and exciting phase of our Club is starting after summer under the leadership and coordination of a new  Board. Let me introduce myself as the president of the Board, thank all the rest of the Board members for their commitment and all alumni for your support.

Since May we have been quite busy preparing a new structure and engaged at deepening our links with the University, extending our original scope to the whole UofC and integrating Spain and Portugal under a common umbrella, with two different Chapters (Spain, coordinated by Peter Simons peter.simons@chicagogsb.edu  and myself and Portugal coordinated by Gonçalo Reis greis@rtp.pt ) but with a common spirit and many synergies. We are preparing and launching a lot of activities where our Board members and all alumni will be key actors.

Let me give you a brief idea of those activities that will enhance our network and the local support of the University:

• Events with key speakers (a previous event was organized in June with Antonio Garrigues and next events will be announced soon as they are confirmed).

• Informal dinners in Madrid (3rd Thursday of each month), Barcelona (2nd Thursday of each month) and Lisbon (to be determined) starting in October (just to make sure everyone is back and ready to network).

• Local Career and Entrepreneurship support.

• Relationships with local economic and social communities.

• Relationships with the UofC both in Chicago and London with support for recruiting activities.

• Relationships with Media.

• … and much more.

In the following days you will hear from us again since we are improving our database of alumni information (currently not as precise and updated as we would like) and a key recruiting event will occur in Madrid in October. Later on you will be receiving updated information of the different activities that will be launched from our Club or events from other Business Schools where we are invited to assist.

As said before, a new phase is coming where we all have the opportunity of being main actors working on a common interest (the more powerful and renown is our network the more benefit we will obtain in the long run for being Chicagos).

The success of this new stage will depend entirely on all of us and not only on the enthusiasts that form our Board. Please come back with any ideas, suggestions or contributions you think that will enhance our Club and that finally will undoubtedly benefit all.

Last, but not least, I would like to send a warm thank you to our former president in Madrid, Santiago Ruiz-Morales (Yago), for all the efforts he made in the past, the excellent platform he has left for us and even the support he is still providing us from the distance of Uzbekistan where he is living now. Thanks Yago!.