"Entrepreneurship is the driving force to create the future"
BBVA Group Executive Chairman Carlos Torres Vila was responsible for welcoming participants to the 87th edition of the Endeavor’s ‘International Selection Panel', which is currently taking place in Madrid. Entrepreneurs have a really important role: they can drive the society creating wealth and jobs, increasing competitiveness and fostering better use of resources," said Torres Vila.
BBVA hosted the welcome dinner for the event organized by global entrepreneur organization Endeavor. 30 companies from 19 countries are participating in this year’s edition, in the hope of being chosen to become members of this “high-impact entrepreneurship movement”, as Carlos Torres Vila defined it, who is a member of its board of trustees in Spain.
BBVA’s Group Executive Chairman encouraged all participants to make the most of these two days of interviews, deliberations, and meetings with mentors, and underscored the key role that entrepreneurs play in society. “Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of society because it is the driving force to create the future, to provide better answers to old questions and challenges, and even more importantly to answer new questions that had not even been asked before”, he said. Also, Torres Vila underscored the role of entrepreneurship to solve the new sustainability and environmental challenges, such as climate change, the overexploitation of natural resources, air and marine pollution; and also social challenges such as diversity or equality.
BBVA’s Chairman also praised Endeavor’s work to foster collaboration among entrepreneurs. “Endeavor is an entrepreneur organization for entrepreneurs. This idea of “Give back” is what really seems more inspiring to me, where the successful entrepreneur can return to society his own experience helping others to travel the same path”, said BBVA’s Group Executive Chairman.
BBVA' s Chairman Carlos Torres Vila with Endeavor Global's Chairman Adrian Garcia Aranyos at 87th ‘International Selection Panel’.
Entrepreneurship is deeply linked to BBVA's vision. “We believe we are in an age of opportunity, and our purpose is to bring the age of opportunity to everyone. We can leverage technology and data to help our clients to make better decisions around money, so they can meet their goals, in life or business”, said BBVA’s Chairman “This requires innovation, that it is one of our core values: to Think Big in the sense of breaking the mold”, he explained.
To conclude, Carlos Torres Vila said that the meeting will “provide us all with an opportunity to make new connections and learn from the brilliant ideas that I’m sure will pop up in the next two days.”
For his part, Adrián García-Aranyos, Chairman of Endeavor Global, thanked BBVA for its support from day one since the organization began its activities in Spain, five years ago.