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OUR PEOPLE

Meet the team who are leading Headspring’s vision forward.

Contact us About Headspring
CEO

Antonio Montes

With extensive experience in the executive education sector, Antonio maintains essential connections across our worldwide alliance of partners. He holds leadership positions in international organisations promoting cross-border learning collaboration and development.

Chief of Staff

Sofia Lopez-Cancio

Sofia Lopez-Cancio is the Head of People at Headspring, leading the People department with a strong focus on the creation of a healthy and sustainable corporate culture and the attraction and engagement of the best talent. Before joining Headspring, she worked in the renewable energy sector covering strategic HR projects across Europe.

Global Head of Learning and Innovation

Malek Adjerad

Malek is an L&D leader who, after nearly two decades leading the learning and development function of global organisations such as Thomson Reuters, UBS, and AXA, moved to Headspring to lead our learning and innovation team. He works with our clients to co-create impactful learning solutions.

Global Head of Customer Experience

Monika Steiner

Monika is responsible for business expansion and maintaining a strong working relationship with clients. She helps clients acquire applicable knowledge, practical skills, aligned behaviours and the right emotional attitudes.

Head of Marketing and Communications

Thiago Kiwi

A lifelong learner, passionate about building resourceful teams, Thiago believes in building Headspring as the number brand in the learning and development industry. In every experience, he strives to bring the best out of the people around him, inspiring confidence and a can-do attitude.

Director of Finance

Diego Palencia de Sarria

Diego Palencia de Sarria (ACMA CGMA) is the Finance Director at Headspring, leading the financial strategy of the company with a focus on commercial growth, value creation for multiple stakeholders and scalability of operations. He was previously a start up CFO, a Commercial Finance Director of The Finacial Times where he spent 10 years with roles at London and Hong Kong, and before that a participant of Repsol’s Young Professionals programme.

Interim Head of Commercial

Elena Escagedo

Elena is Interim Head of Commercial at Headspring. Before joining the company, Elena was Director of Open Enrolment Programs at IE Business School. Elena is a great listener, has empathy with diverse clients’ needs, and is always happy to challenge assumptions in the interests of an effective education programme. Elena has an MBA degree and a BA in Economics.

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Our people

Board of Directors

James Lamont

Chairman of the Board of Directors
James Lamont is Financial Times' Director of Strategic Partnerships. Lamont is responsible for identifying new partnership opportunities for the Financial Times and leading existing initiatives. In his previous role as Managing Editor, Lamont oversaw staffing and strategic planning of the FT's editorial department.

Teresa Martín-Retortillo Rubio

Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors
Teresa Martín-Retortillo is the Executive President of executive education at IE Business School. She also leads innovation in open programs both online and face-to-face. She is also a non-executive director at Bankinter and EVO Bankon. Teresa has held senior positions at McGraw-Hill Education, Bain & Company.

Diego del Alcázar Benjumea

Non-executive Director
Diego del Alcázar Benjumea is CEO and Vice President of IE University and sits on its Board of Directors. Diego plays a key role in the strategic vision and the general management of the institution, highly focused on promoting the innovation strategy and its execution. He is the driver of IE’s digital transformation,leading IE’s technological immersion.

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño

Non-executive Director
Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño is the Vice-Chairman of Headspring. He is also the President of IE University and a recognized influencer in global higher education. Iniguez is the former Dean of IE Business School and has played a leading role in business education. He was portrayed by the Financial Times as “one of the most significant figures in promoting European business schools internationally”.

Angela Mackay

Non-executive Director
Angela Mackay is a non-executive director for Headspring. Mackay is the Global Publisher of FT Live and Managing Director of FT Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, she is a member of the FT’s global board and focuses on developing the group’s significant potential across Asia Pacific. She also leads business and strategy developments for events, membership and communities globally.

James Lund

Non-executive Director
James Lund has been Chief Financial Officer of the Financial Times Group since December 2015 and in August 2021 also took on the role of Chief Operations Officer. He has been with the Financial Times since 2012 and was a key member of the team who sold the FT to Nikkei Inc. During his career he has held various finance roles at British Airways, TalkTalk and Centrica. He graduated from Manchester University with an honours degree in Computer Science and is a qualified management accountant (CIMA).

Juan José Güemes

Non-executive Director
Juan José Güemes joined IE University in March 2010, as Chairman of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, after seventeen years of intense political activity. He had previously served in a broad range of government departments, including tourism, finance and employment, gender policies, and health. Since January 2012, he is also IE VP of Economic Affairs.

Caspar de Bono

Non-executive Director
Formerly the Managing Director of B2B at the Financial Times, Caspar was responsible for the FT’s relationship with corporate subscribers, news aggregators and syndication customers. He now is the Managing Director of de Bono, an organisation focused on providing tools to change the future.