Elena González-Blanco García

Speaker Bio

Elena González-Blanco is the Head of Artificial Intelligence & Data for Digital Natives (Startups & Unicorns) at Microsoft for EMEA. Previously, she was the Co-Founder and CEO of Clibrain, a generative AI startup specializing in the creation of large language models tailored to the Spanish-speaking community. She is also an Independent Board Member at Traxion and formerly served as an Independent Board Member and Chair of the Audit Committee at LLYC, as well as a member of the Advisory Board to the CEO of Astara, part of the M&A fund Albia Capital.

Earlier in her career, Elena was Global Head of Digital for Wealth Management and Insurance at Banco Santander (EVP), General Manager for Europe at CoverWallet—an insurtech startup acquired by Aon in January 2020—and a member of the Aon Iberia Executive Committee. Prior to that, she led Artificial Intelligence Product Development at Minsait (Indra).

Elena is an expert in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, with a special focus on language technologies and international interdisciplinary projects. She holds a PhD from Universidad Complutense, a Master's in Digital Information Systems from UC3M, and has completed executive programs at LSE London, MIT, and ESADE. A renowned international researcher, she has worked at Harvard University, King’s College London, UNAM, Bonn, and UNED. She is currently an Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence Applied to Business at IE Business School and also teaches at ICAI and AFI.

Fluent in English, French, German, and Italian, Elena has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Female Leaders in Spain (2016, 2017, 2018) and was awarded the Julián Marías Prize in 2017 for researchers under 40. She ranked #1 and #3 in the Choiseul “100 Economic Leaders for the Future of Spain” (2018, 2019), was named among the #40under40 Insurance Leaders in Spain (2020), and received the 2021 WIDS Prize for Women in Machine Learning and Data Science. She is the mother of four children.