Tomás Calleja, Alejandro Llano, Jaime Benguría and José María Zalbidea.

The Dream of A Group of Businessmen Becomes a Successful Initiative

The Institute for Business and Humanism began its life as a Permanent Seminar in 1986. A group of businessmen, convinced of the necessity to redesign the society in which we live, visited the University of Navarra in search of who shared their vision of the practical importance of the humanities, a view not generally held in the business world nor society at large.

Among the businessmen that participated in this initiative during its beginnings were Tomás Calleja (Iberdrola), José María Zalbidea (Iberdrola), Felipe Gómez Pallete (IBM) and Manuel Herrán (Compañía Sevillana de Electricidad). Luis María de Ybarra y Oriol (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya) was named President of the new Permanent Seminar.

On the part of the University, those who took part in the founding of this initiative were Alejandro Llano, Leonardo Polo, Rafael Alvira and Jaime Benguría.