During this year’s ceremony of EURADA Awards, in the framework of AGORADA, we did a tribute to our now former director, Esteban Pelayo, after having been the CEO of EURADA for the past seven years.

A bit of history

Esteban has spent the last eleven years of his life in Brussels. Having worked at Instituto de Fomento de la Región de Murcia as an expert responsible for Technology Centres and intellectual property rights for over ten years, he moved to Belgium to be the EU Policy Officer at the Región de Murcia office in Brussels. He then joined EURADA as a Director in 2016, when Christian Saublens, our founder and former CEO, decided to put an end to his 24-year mandate. Earlier in 2022, Esteban was offered to go back to Spain to be the Manager of the Scientific Park of his alma mater, the University of Alicante.

Accomplishments

During his mandate, Esteban introduced EURADA to the world of European projects. Our association is currently contributing to more than fifteen projects from tenders such as the European Commission, Interreg, Erasmus+, Horizon2020 and others. To be able to tackle these projects, over these past years EURADA has seen its staff number increase up to eleven employees, with the additional support of interns. The promotion of internships has also been a great contribution by Esteban, providing the opportunity to a wide number of young professionals to work on European projects and gain experience. Not only that, but the professional profiles of interns joining EURADA are not only project officers. Still, they are widely diversified, counting on a wide range of professionals to provide support to EURADA on other important tasks such as institutional relations, communications, graphic design, and event planning, …

Who is next?

After Esteban’s departure, EURADA will be under the guidance of an interim director for a few months. In that way, the Board of Directors will take their time to find a suitable candidate without rushing the decision and, more importantly, make sure that the person elected will be the best fit to guide our association in the upcoming years.

Everybody at EURADA wants to thank Esteban for his relentless dedication to our association and wish him the best in his future endeavours in Alicante, both professionally and personally to him and his family.