Gonzalo Martin-Villa

Gonzalo joined Telefónica in 1997, when he started working in the legal department of Telefónica International, the entity that managed Telefónica´s international operations at that time. In 1999 he was appointed as Legal Manager of Telefónica Móviles, the holding company that managed all the mobile operations worldwide.

In 2002 he was appointed Legal Director of Telefónica Móviles México, where he worked for almost three years before returning to Spain to join Telefónica Latino américa.

In October 2006 he was designated as Director of the Secretaría General Técnica (Chairman´s Office) of Telefónica Latino américa, where he has been working until the beginning of 2011, when he was appointed as Wayra’s Global Leader.

Wayra is part of Telefónica’s new Digital unit and aims to become the largest technology accelerator on earth. Launched last year in Latin America and Spain, Wayra was created to find and nurture the best technology ideas and talent, aiming to become an accelerator for the development of future ‘Silicon Valleys’ in the countries where Telefónica is present.

Wayra is aimed at early stage technology start-ups and is open to entrepreneurs of all ICT backgrounds. In addition to financing, the 10 projects, selected during a Wayra, will also receive integral support from Telefónica, mentoring, access to technology expertise at Telefónica and use of a special co-working space, the Wayra Academies and all the tools necessary to create successful business.

As per today, Wayra has presence in Colombia, México, Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), Venezuela, Perú, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and UK. In 2012 Wayra will launch operations in Germany, Ireland and Czech Republic.

Gonzalo has a degree in Law (1990-1995) by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, an LLM by Georgetown University (1996-1997), and also holds an MBA from IESE Business School - University of Navarra (2005–2007).