Javier Quintanilla named new director of IESE’s Madrid campus

Prof. Javier Quintanilla has been appointed as the new director of IESE's Madrid campus, replacing Prof. José Luis Suárez, who has been in the post since 2018 and becomes professor emeritus of the school. Javier Quintanilla, who will begin his term on September 1, assumes the directorship on the 50th anniversary of the start of IESE's activities in Madrid.

Javier Quintanilla is a professor in the Department of Managing People in Organizations. He has more than 30 years of experience training senior executives around the world. His research focuses on leadership and human resources, with a special focus on multinational companies.

Prof. Quintanilla joined IESE in 1990, after working as a lawyer and manager. He received his doctorate from Warwick Business School in 1998. Until 2021, he served on IESE's board as director of the Scientific Staff, Research and Doctoral Program, an area for which he was previously associate director. He was also associate director of IESE's Executive MBA. The new director of IESE in Madrid, a married father of four, began to experience hearing loss in his early 20s, which led to profound bilateral deafness, and he uses cochlear implants in both ears. His disability has not prevented him from developing a brilliant professional career.

He is a member of several boards of directors and advisory boards. He is also a trustee of several foundations and non-profit institutions such as the Randstad Foundation, the Advisory Board of the University of Navarra Law School and the CASER Foundation.

50th Anniversary of IESE in Madrid
Prof. Quintanilla's appointment as director of IESE's Madrid campus coincides with the school’s 50th anniversary in the Spanish capital. IESE began its activities in Madrid in October 1974 with the PADE program, focused on senior management. Seven years later, after consolidating the PDD and PDG programs for executives, the EMBA, the first Executive MBA program in Europe, was launched with great success.

1991 saw the inauguration of first campus, offering the executive development programs and the Custom programs for national and international companies. In 2019, the Master in Management (MiM) was launched, aimed at young graduates. In 2021 King Felipe VI inaugurated the new Executive building, consolidating a campus of more than 33,000 square meters with two large buildings, Master and Executive, surrounded by forests.