Neurologist and entrepreneur Ignacio Hernández Medrano has won the 2019 Princess of Girona Foundation (FPdGi) Business Award. The winner’s name was announced on 6 February at an event held in the Canary Islands Conference Centre Auditorium and presided over by HM the King, before an audience of more than 500 attendees, most of them young people. Country manager of Facebook Spain, Irene Cano, chair of the jury, highlighted the winner’s capacity to apply his experience as a neurologist to create a business project that leverages technology to improve medical research and the quality of patient care.
The jury said that Savana, the company led by Ignacio Hernández Medrano, “generates predictive models that anticipate the best medical intervention for a patient by tapping into a wealth of clinical knowledge that has been underused until now”. The jury was composed of, in addition to Irene Cano, 2017 FPdGi Business Award winner Damià Tormo; economist Fernando Fernández; the founder of Rusticae and PlenEat and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum Carlota Mateos; the founder of Kiboventures Aquilino Peña, entrepreneur and business ownerBernardo Hernández, and mathematician and economist César Molinas.
The event, organised by the FPdGi in collaboration with the Gran Canaria Island Council, was presided over by HM the King of Spain and attended by the president of the Canary Islands government Fernando Clavijo, the minister of Education Isabel Celaá, the chairman of the Gran Canaria Island CouncilAntonio Morales, the Spanish Government delegate in the Canary Islands Elena Máñez, and the president of the FPdGi, Francisco Belil, as well as FPdGi award winners and trustees, among other authorities and important figures from the Canary Islands’ civil society and business community.
The president of the FPdGi, Francisco Belil, said that the Princess of Girona Foundation Business Award is “very necessary, as when a young person speaks, it is not easy for them to be heard, and at the Princess of Girona Foundation we want to listen to what they have to say” because “talent needs the chance to be recognised”.
The winner spoke to the audience by telephone at the end of the event, thanking the Foundation for its award and adding that although it was a totally unexpected honour, he was particularly delighted to have won the award as he already knew about the Foundation’s work after participating in one of its events last year and that he had been very impressed by the projects it carries out with young people.
CHALLENGE IN LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA
Before the public announcement of the 2019 FPdGi Business Award, the INFECAR ICT Demonstration Centre hosted an innovative workshop in which more than 200 young Canary Islanders were given 180 intense minutes to apply a disruptive methodology to come up with original solutions to the problem that was posed: “Obtain MORE results, working BETTER: how to improve productivity in the workplace”. This activity, held between 9 am and 12 midday, formed part of the special programme designed by the FPdGi for the announcement of the 2019 FPdGi Business Award to develop creativity, teamwork and young talent.
