The Cabildo of Lanzarote, chaired by Oswaldo Betancort, through SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote, presented this Monday, December 18, the tourism project 'Lanzarote CM1000X2023', an initiative that aims to identify and develop local talent in the sector.
The president and tourism councilor of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, rescued two maxims of César Manrique, a source of inspiration for this project, who always recalled "the moral obligation to apply talent to life and its development."
In that sense, Betancort stressed that the main objective of the initiative is to "contact people from the Island who reside abroad to learn about the areas of innovation in which they are working, with the possibility of learning and putting it into practice in the new tourism sector that Lanzarote is undertaking."
"The first step is to identify our leaders abroad. We refer to that talent of which we should feel proud and which Lanzarote, without a doubt, has helped to nurture. From there, our commitment involves the creation of platforms and spaces in which their ideas, projects and learning in pioneering sectors in the world, can revert to positive impact, financing, opportunities and progress on the Island, while helping us plant seeds and inspire the people who come after," the president detailed.
The CEO of SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote, Héctor Fernández, explained that the final result that is intended to be achieved as a result of this work "will be a platform in which to channel the voices of all these people, as well as their proposals and ideas, in order for these to actively contribute to the main strategic lines and decision-making forums of Lanzarote in economic, tourism, sustainable, cultural and social matters."
The presentation of the project to the media was sponsored by Luis Alvarado Martínez, a resident of the island who has promoted the initiative and who is currently a director of the World Economic Forum and also works at the Mission Possible Partnership, which seeks to advise CEOs and the world's leading companies in heavy industries to help them decarbonize their business models and value chains. He has worked for the last decade at the intersection of climate change and green finance, public policies and relations with governments, holding positions in the British Government, and the Rockefeller Foundation and its resilient cities program.
He has also held elected positions on different civil society platforms within the frameworks of the EU, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. Trained by the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), the College of Europe in Bruges and the ULPGC, his work has been recognized with awards such as European Young Person of the Year by the Schwarzkopf Foundation, the Charlemagne Prize of the European Parliament, and recognitions from the European Center for Government Transformation, the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country and the NovaTalent 111 list, among others.
Likewise, and connected through an online platform with the public present at the Arrecife Gran Hotel, several Lanzarote collaborators of the project participated in the presentation, such as Jose Carlos (Joey) Hassan, partner of Zavala Civitas/NGS Global (executive search, talent management and consulting); Fred Fontes, Partner, Replicant (Artificial Intelligence); Patricia Cantero, former Olympian and now Saildrone (pilot for unmanned sailing vehicles for mapping and supplying oceanographic data); Saray Ossorio, Architect at Hennig Larsen (architecture studio pioneer in Copenhagen and worldwide in sustainable, resilient design).
