“All we need is passion for lifelong learning !”

Head of Global School Business at Odilo, where our mission is to create equality in Education by making digital content of the highest quality easily accessible and affordable for all, promote strong learning habits, and help everyone reach their full potential by providing personalized smart learning solutions.

Graduate in Economics (International Economy and Development) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and Executive MBA by Instituto de Empresa. With over 20 years’ background in major companies in the Education and Publishing industry, he has extensive experience dealing with printed and digital learning resources and services, including school and higher education textbooks, school’s management platforms, foreign languages learning materials, literature for children and young adults, assessment tools and teacher training services.

Commercial and International Sales Director at Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial. Physical, digital, export and corporate sales are covered by the function I lead.

Being member of the Board at PRHGE I also hold under my responsibilities the direction of the group’s company in Portugal.

After my ESADE Management and MBA degrees I joined Bacardi-Martini Spain marketing department before co-managing Ediciones Beascoa from 1995 to 2001.

I then started my career at what was Random House Mondadori back in 2001 when Ediciones Beascoa became part of the Group.

After the integration I held various positions (Export Director, Sales Director and Marketing Director) before assuming my current responsibilities.

Managing Director, international and multicultural consultant. Specialist in management, distribution, sale, promotion of books and digital content (audio, video) in physical bookstores, libraries and online. Lecturer in forums on publishing and the book world. Visiting professor in various Publishing Master’s courses.

Antonio has been pioneer in Spain in the development and online sale of paper and digital books, responsible for the implementation of Amazon Spain as Senior Manager Amazon/Kindle and KDP, Amazon ‘s self-publishing platform . VP Content Leer-e. Coordinator and manager of the e- commerce project libelista.com.

Managing Director and President, with more than 33 years of management experience with a deep and extensive knowledge of the publishing sector, both in Trade, STM and Text, in Spain, Latin America and the USA in McGraw-Hill, Grijalbo/ Mondadori, Grupo Santillana (Chile and USA) Y OUP Mexico.

Director and Vice President with responsibilities in publishing, sales, marketing and international distribution at Ediciones B , Harper Collins (US, Latam) and Andrés Bello México among other posts in several companies.

Alejandro has a degree in Journalism [Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, UPSA, 2000], has studies in Hispanic Language & Literature [Universidad de Salamanca, USAL, 2002], studied the Publishing Course [Yale University, 2015] and has a Master in Internet Business [MIB, ISDI, 2017].

Between 1996 and 2004, Alejandro worked in different media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and press offices). Since 2005, his professional activity has always been linked to the academic publishing, beginning to work at Arco/Libros publishing house. In 2007, he worked for Logística Libromares, where he was in charge of the institutional services area. From 2013 to date, he works directly with the Spanish Association of University Publishers (UNE), where he is the general manager of Unebook.es and Unebook.pro.

«Offering solutions to answer publishers’ main challenges of today.» 

Aude Desbant was born in Paris. After completing her studies and her master degree in international business between France, Austria and Mexico, she finally moved out to Germany and joined the company Books on Demand with the exciting mission to develop the French market seven years ago. Making publishers aware of the infinite advantages of print on demand, helping them develop a sustainable publishing strategy and discovering with them new opportunities to generate revenue with their backlist are Aude main assignments, which she now executes on a European level as manager for the sales and business development international. 

Books on Demand is the European market and technology leader in digital publishing. It offers its more than 3,500 publishers a complete solution for the production from one copy and the worldwide distribution of books and e-books. Books on Demand is present in eight European countries and offers services to distribute the publishers’ titles worldwide. During their workshop, Aude will present with her colleague Michaela Arnold, the PLUREOS project: the largest and most and most modern print-on-demand center in Europe from Libri and BoD join forces and show its advantages for publishers and the publishing world.“ 

 “Let us develop the book market in the right direction!” 

Currently responsible for BoD Spain, a European pioneer in print-on-demand since 1997, Michaela advises publishers in the implementation of the print-on-demand model, as well as authors in their self-publishing process. She was born in Germany and studied in Spain Translation and Interpretation, specializing in Conference Interpreting. Michaela also completed a master’s degree in event management and organization. 

Books on Demand is the European market and technology leader in digital publishing. It offers its more than 3,500 publishers a complete solution for the production from one copy and the worldwide distribution of books and e-books. Books on Demand is present in eight European countries and offers services to distribute the publishers’ titles worldwide. During their workshop, Michaela will present with her colleague Aude Desbant, the PLUREOS project: the largest and most and most modern print-on-demand center in Europe from Libri and BoD join forces and show its advantages for publishers and the publishing world. 

Nowadays, the sustainable transformation of our organizations constitutes one of the main challenges that we must face. If you haven’t already done so, define your sustainability strategy, align it with your corporate strategy and take advantage of it to generate more value for your organization. It is a big transformation that affects not only the processes but also in the organization´s behaviour, but critical to keep our organizations as solid and healthy players for the years to come. Let’s share ideas and write this story together.

It is often said that there is no better gift than being in the right place at the right time. It is exactly what I feel after more than 20 years of experience in the publishing sector, in different executive management positions at Grupo Planeta. I feel that I am witnessing and being an active part of the great transformation and continuous adaptation that the book publishing sector has been undergoing in recent years, with changes in some cases that are difficult to anticipate and even imagine, which have made it one of the most exciting and attractive in which to develop a professional career. If it has always been a privilege to work hand in hand with those who tell us their stories in the place that makes them tangible and even remarkable, now even more if that is even possible.

Because if there is an area, currently, within the publishing sector, where changes are being experienced in a more significant and frenetic way, generating an incredible number of challenges and opportunities, it is the one in which I am currently carrying out responsibilities: the supply chain.

Who could have imagined it? But yes: game-changing challenges in technology and digitalization processes, sustainability transformation, supply chain disruptions, demand strength, tensions in sources and supply deadlines, etc. etc… are provoking very huge impacts in all the flow, challenging us to constantly adapt, innovate and search for the best solutions, always in collaboration with all the actors in every link of the chain, to continue contributing to keeping the magic of books and reading alive.

So, if you want to feel thrilling emotions, come and enjoy the challenges and the exciting opportunities the book supply chain is currently offering. Gripping, I promise 😉

Co-founded the company 30 years ago when he was 15 years old.

Successfully programmed and commercialized best-selling software such as Typing Pal & Budget Express. Extensive managerial experience through entire product cycles, industry shifts, company turnarounds.

Involved in many industry committees which are shaping the future of publishing.

Received multiple business awards in Canada, France, and Italy.
Holds degrees from McGill and Laval University 

«On a mission to make education more accessible to all, whilst helping publishers recuperate revenue lost from piracy and second-hand book sales»
Gauthier Van Malderen is the co-founder and CEO of Perlego, the largest textbook subscription service, launched in Jan 2017. Perlego’s mission is to make education accessible to all by partnering with learners, instructors and publishers around the world. Gauthier has raised $75m USD to date and has won 26 awards including Europas Best Edtech, Virgin Voom and KPMG pioneer awards. He is a Bocconi & Cambridge graduate
Fátima Bigeriego, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Odilo, a leading company in creating fully customized Unlimited Learning Ecosystems to help organizations reach their full potential. Thanks to the speed in the evolution of its learning capabilities, it is able to provide rapid response (in this case in just two weeks) in challenging times when education is at risk, like the one we are living now, the war in Ukraine. Within the company, Fatima leads strategic alliances and projects that, in the various verticals in which the company operates (Public and private schools, Universities, Corporations, Ministries of Education, etc), help exponentially to grow the business globally. This includes social projects that reinforce Odilo’s true mission of democratizing high-quality education worldwide.
During her workshop in the Sandbox on Innovation called «Edtech’s full-speed solutions in times of hardship», she’ll explain how the industry has given response immediately to a situation where kids and education are the most affected in the war. It is not the first time that the industry proposed a full speed solution in difficult times, during lockdown when children could not attend schools, the edtech industry supported education with an open and free of charge digital platform. Now, thanks to partners, industry stakeholders and groups of volunteers, together we launched a 100% non-profit movement to support kids and families with an unlimited learning ecosystem that is currently helping them to learn the language and culture and compliments their Ukrainian school program.