Leire Barañano, a graduate in Business Administration and Management, has also completed the UPV/EHU Foreign and International Trade Master not to mention the Food Company Management Programme (DEA) with San Telmo International Institute, among others. She is currently the Managing Director of NEIKER-Tecnalia and a member of the Boards of trustees of Tecnalia Foundation, Elhuyar Foundation and Elika Foundation, besides being on the Board of directors of Tecnalia Technology Corporation. Throughout her 20 year professional career she has had the opportunity of getting to know the value chain in its entirety, thereby providing her with an invaluable cross-section vision to detect the challenges facing the agrifood and gastronomic sectors. Her day to day is aimed at finding solutions, opportunities and new business lines, not to mention responding to consumers’ future demands and needs so both realities can connect.
She has worked at EROSKI, a food distribution firm, as the Corporate Control and Planning Manager. In addition, at this same company she also performed the duties of Corporate Planning and Image Director as well as Customer-Brand Marketing Director, where she was able to acquire in-depth knowledge of the food processing and production sectors besides the end market. During her time at AZTI-Tecnalia, a food and marine research centre, she undertook Value Management functions and set herself the challenge of ensuring research teams were oriented towards seeking solutions for the food sector.
She has been the Managing Director of NEIKER-Tecnalia, a technological centre offering the agrifood and forestry sectors innovative solutions, since the beginning of 2017 where her main duty is to continue working on converting scientific knowledge into value contributions for companies in these sectors. Standing out among her goals is the creation and launching of a strategy aimed at improving the competitiveness of the timber forestry sector.
