ICEX-Invest in Spain Executive Director awarded “Person of the Year” recognition by Spain´s Association of Business Angels Networks

On Thursday, Nov. 8th in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain´s Association of Business Angels Networks (AEBAN) held its VI Annual Awards ceremony, as part of the VII Annual Meeting. The meeting brought together business angels networks and public institutions with the shared goal of energyzing a figure that, aided by the introduction of new inverting formulas, is poised to keep expanding its role within the investing world, according to a press release published by ICEX.

In this edition, the “Person of the Year” Award was given to María J. Fernández, Executive Director of ICEX-Invest in Spain, in recognition of her efforts to promote the role of business angels as a dynamic agent within the industry. AEBAN´s awards seek to promote and support the figure os business angels as a resource to finance innovative business projects, and to be a showcase for the work done by the business angels networks within the business innovation ecosystem, the creation of new companies and the growth of existing ones, and their contribution to society.

For this reason, the Awards focus on five areas: the best network, the most relevant business angel, the most relevant transaction, the most impactful local investment, and the person whose work throughout the year has contributed the most to promote this investment figure.

AEBAN currently gathers a total of 35 networks operating out of 11 autonomous communities. These networks in turn represent almost 2,000 member investors who leveraged 40 M€ last year.