Current Affairs Programme

Paul Evans

“Developing leadership in maturity: new prospects”

In partnership with the Foundation’s Alumni Association, on 15 January 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation welcomed Paul Evans, Professor of Human Resources and Organisational Development at INSEAD where he is also lectures in economics. He has a PhD in Management and Organisational Psychology from MIT and a degree in Law from Cambridge University. He has been an external adviser to international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the OECD, and has taught at the universities of Boston, Montreal, Zurich and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During his lecture he said that “young people, when they join a company, have contact with their boss, with their department, but not with the global company. Employees do not leave a company, they leave their bosses who do not provide opportunities for growth. So one of the most serious problems is the type of business leadership“.

Professor Evans has focused his research on studying leadership and management skills and has developed action plans for major multinatinal companies. The media and the specialist press have described him as one of the most internationally influential specialists in the field of human resources management.

Jean Pierre Benoit

“Overcoming rational crises: why do disasters happen?”

In partnership with the Foundation’s Alumni Association, on 18 February 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation organised a lecture by Jean Pierre Benoit, Professor of Economics at the London Business School.

In his lecture Professor Benoit said that “ambition and over-confidence in oneself is not a problem, but it can lead to a wrong idea of your skills, either through excessive self-confidence or none whatsoever. If, for example, I am looking for a job and I think I am doing very well - even better than everyone else - I tend to say that I can do better than the competition, and this can seem over-confidence. But it is not really. The thing is that over-confidence has always been misinterpreted ... ambition can also be good, because it involves trying to improve and to do better every time, and that happens to require a great deal of self-confidence.”

Professor Benoit is an expert in game theory, voting systems and auctions, economic analysis of law and social and industrial organisation. He obtained a PhD in Economics at Stanford University and a degree in Economics and Mathematics at Yale University. He has taught at the London Business School, New York University, Columbia University and Pittsburgh University.

Tyler Cowen

“Discover your inner economist”

On 20 February 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation welcomed professor and writer Tyler Cowen. At his lecture, which coincided with the launch of his latest book published by Planeta, he said “there are two keys to success for a small business: treat your employees with respect and hold fewer meetings. With regard to the first, it is necessary to delegate authority to employees and avoid overwhelming them with permanent control. You also need to believe in what you are doing and think about your customers, and not be obsessed with making money. And as I said, the big problem with companies is that there are too many meetings. A study has shown that they are a waste of time. They are not productive. There should be a time limit, they should be held over the phone or standing up. They would finish sooner“.

Tyler Cowen is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. His blog is the most visited economic analysis and discussion forum in the world. He regularly writes for The New York Times and has written for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Wilson Quarterly.

Tim Harford

“The logic of life”

Economist and journalist Tim Harford gave a lecture on 25 March 2008, coinciding with the launch of his latest book published in Spanish by Temas de Hoy entitled “The logic of life“. In the introduction to the book Tim Harford maintains that “there is nothing irrational about love. In fact, without our passions and principles, where would we get our motivation for making rational choices about anything? So a world that is explained with the fundamentals of economics is not a world without love, hate or any other emotion; on the contrary, it is a world in which people are expected to take rational decisions, in which those rational decisions suggest some surprising explanations for many of life’s mysteries. This is the world I would like to show you.”

Tim Harford is the author of “The undercover economist”. A member of the editorial board of the Financial Times, Tim Harford continues to practise his skills as a journalist in his column “The undercover economist”, in which he analyses the economic logic underlying everyday experiences. He also writes the humorous “Dear economist” column in which he responds to readers’ concerns.

In 2006 he won the Bastiat prize for the best economic journalism.

David B. Audretsch

“The entrepreneurial society”

On 23 April 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation welcomed Professor David B. Audretsch who is considered to be one of the 100 most prestigious economists of the past decade and an expert in entrepreneurial leadership.

In his lecture he said that “the consequences of the present crisis appear to be those of a global recession or even those of a global depression. Almost no country can isolate itself from this oil and financial markets crisis. At the same time, we must learn to do things differently in the future, we must innovate. It would be a mistake to expect oil prices to go back to what they were, and the financial system will not go back to what it was either. The positive thing about this crisis is that it is going to generate significant opportunities.”

Professor Audretsch gained a PhD in Economics at the University of Wisconsin in 1979. He is currently Professor of Economic Development and Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University, as well as Director of the department of entrepreneurial research, development and public policies at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London.

In 2001 the Swedish Foundation for Research on Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses awarded him its Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research.

Professor Audretsch‘s research work focuses on the links between the entrepreneurial society and government policy, innovation, economic development and globalisation. Audretsch has consulted with the World Bank, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. State Department, United States Federal Trade Commission, General Accounting Office and International Trade Commission as well as the United Nations, Commission of the European Union, the European Parliament, the OECD, and also numerous private corporations, state governments, and a number of European Governments.

Juan Luis Arsuaga

“The most beautiful story in the world”

On 20 May 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation welcomed Juan Luis Arsuaga, Professor of Paleontology at Madrid Complutense University.

Professor Arsuaga gave a lecture in which he explained that “Man was already talking half a million years ago. We are trying to find out when the conscious mind appeared and language emerged. Traditionally these evolutionary developments were associated with the appearance of Homo sapiens. At Sima de los Huesos in the Spanish province of Burgos, our research leads us to conclude that half a million years ago there were already human beings who had awareness and language.”

Professor Arsuaga is a member of the Museum of Man in Paris, the International Association for the Study of Human Paleontology, Deputy Chairman of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) Committee for Human Paleontology and Paleoecology. Since 1982 he has been a member of the team researching the Pleistocene sites in the Atapuerca mountains in the Spanish province of Burgos, and since 1991 he has been joint director, with José María Bermúdez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell Roura of the team that won the 1997 Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research and the 1997 Castile & León Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities.

He is the author and editor of articles in scientific journals such as Nature, Science, Journal of Human Evolution, Journal of Archaeological Science and American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Juergen B. Donges

“Economic forecasting in difficult times” and “How to get out of the crisis? Present and future economic challenges”

Since 2003 the Rafael del Pino Foundation has organised a lecture every six months on the current economic outlook, given by Professor Juergen B. Donges, Director of the Institute of Economic Politics, Cologne, and former Chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts.

With this initiative, the Foundation seeks to provide Spanish businessmen and scholars with periodic illustrated information on the economic outlook in Spain, Europe and the world.

In 2008, Professor Donges gave two lectures, on 22 May and 27 November, entitled, respectively: “Economic forecasting in difficult times“ and “How to get out of the crisis? Present and future economic challenges“.

In his latest lecture he said that “this is not the first time that a financial crisis has been preceded by a property market bubble; it happened ten years ago in the Asian crisis and at the beginning of the 1990s in the Swedish and Japanese banking crises. History could repeat itself in Spain if the banks had to book significant provisions due to the increase in defaulting debtors and were unable to obtain sufficient external financing. For the banks this lesson means that, contrary to what many had believed until now, real assets are not necessarily reliable guarantees when granting loans. And borrowers must realise that it is not reasonable to take on more debt than can be serviced with their disposable income.”

Vicente Valero

“Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. The current status of multidisciplinary treatment, the future of biological therapies and the role of the new genomic tools”

On 13 November 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation welcomed Professor Vicente Valero.

In his lecture he explained that “the majority of women in Europe and the United States will be cured of breast cancer. More than 90% of those whose ganglia test negative will survive. More than 75% of those whose ganglia test positive will be cured.... That means that we are going to have a very high number of women survivors. The therapies we have at present have led to a reduction in the number of relapses. The possibility of women developing another cancer years later has therefore been considerably minimised.”

Vicente Valero teaches and researches at Texas University, Houston, where he is Professor of Medicine at the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Professor of Internal Medicine at the Health Service Center Medical School. Until 2007 he was also Head of the Oncology Department at the Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, Houston.

Professor Valero is known internationally for his work on clinical oncology and his research into cancer, particularly breast cancer. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Association for Cancer Research, the European Society for Medical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He has also received numerous prizes and distinctions, and is the author of innumerable research papers published in the most important scientific journals. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of Oncology Review, Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology and the American Journal of Clinical Oncology.