Maria Santolaria

Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Consultant, Designer, Environmentalist, Explorer, Idea generator, Scientist, World traveler

Critical thinker. Team player. Eager learner. Endlessly curious. Design passionate. Business oriented. Self-starter. Dot connector. Sustainability enthusiast. Idea generator. World traveler. Purpose driven. Digital-savvy. Science nerd. Maria is the Head of Human-Centered Innovation at Banco Sabadell. She is also the Head Curator of TEDxYouth@Barcelona and co-founder of TEDxBarcelona. Prior to working at Banco Sabadell, she worked at Fjord Madrid and Smart Design San Francisco, both award-winning innovation and design consulting firms. Before moving to Silicon Valley, she worked at Infonomia, one of the leading innovation consulting firms in Spain. Some of her clients include: Microsoft, Samsung, HP, Huawei, Sanitas, Eroski and La Caixa Foundation, among others. She teaches Design Thinking in various schools and organizations and mentors some start-ups. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Usability and User Experience from the Ramon Llull University (Barcelona), an Executive Certificate in Innovation Leadership from the CCA (San Francisco), a Postgraduate Diploma in Design and Innovation from Elisava School of Design (Barcelona) and MSc in Environmental Sciences from the UAB (Barcelona).

Learning, sustainability, design thinking, basketball, changing the status-quo, travelling, science, entrepreneurship, ... and much more.

Make the world a better place, for everyone.

Design Thinking, Innovation, Sustainability

I've known TED since I was an intern at Infonomia, an innovation services company based in Barcelona. Alfons Cornella, Founder of the company, always told us about TED and it was an inspiration for all the employees. When TED launched the TEDx program in 2009, we started organizing TEDxBarcelona and then TEDxYouth@Barcelona. I still can't believe that I'm part of the TEDx community... !

Making order out of chaos