Our Impact
By educating and developing business owners, executives and public leaders, we help them make fair and effective decisions that strengthen their organizations, have a positive impact on society and contribute to greater prosperity.
Since its creation, the San Telmo Foundation has worked to fulfil the vision of a group of business owners and institutions who, selflessly and on a non-profit basis, brought their enthusiasm together to help build a better society.
Principles and Values
San Telmo is an academic institution serving business and society, with an identity intended to endure beyond the circumstances of any given moment. This vision was expressed in the Foundation’s “Enduring Principles”, formulated to safeguard its mission over time.
1. Holistic Education for Senior Management
San Telmo educates those who lead companies and institutions, helping them make fair and effective decisions and put them into practice with ethical conduct.
2. Teaching and Applied Research
Improving the capabilities of business owners and executives requires rigorous academic work focused on wealth creation and economic and social development.
3. Competent and Committed People
San Telmo must recruit outstanding professionals, invest continuously in their development and involve them in the ongoing improvement of the institution.
4. Intellectual Rigour and Practical Relevance
San Telmo's faculty must be demanding, open to external contributors and committed to up-to-date teaching that remains closely connected to the real challenges of management.
5. Excellence and Personal Attention
Attention to participants and faculty will always be a priority. This includes providing the right resources and conditions for academic activity.
6. Freedom, Dignity and Social Responsibility
San Telmo will help promote ideas such as free enterprise, the dignity and freedom of every person, and the social role of organizations, from a Christian understanding of life and with respect for all ideologies and religions.
7. Institutional Independence
The institution must preserve its academic and governance independence through sustainable and diversified funding, avoiding dependencies that could compromise its mission.
8. Continuity, Tradition and Work Well Done
San Telmo will invest in people, prepare future leadership transitions and progress with prudence, respecting the legacy it has received while maintaining professional standards and a spirit of service.
9. Entrepreneurial Spirit
Through Creara, San Telmo encourages entrepreneurial and management vocations, supports the creation of innovative companies and brings young people closer to the realities of business.
Message from the First President
Javier López de la Puerta was what we might call a “social entrepreneur”. Throughout his life, he showed a remarkable ability to identify needs in his community, study them and promote initiatives that could help address them. He did so as mayor of Osuna —a responsibility he assumed at the age of 26— by driving social and welfare improvements such as housing, water supply and a hospital; later, in agriculture, by seeking new employment opportunities and promoting cooperation and professionalisation among farmers; and finally, through San Telmo, convinced that many of society’s problems could find a profound response in education and development.
His approach was rooted in a deep respect for the freedom and dignity of every person, regardless of their ideas, position or circumstances. This outlook was reflected in his ability to listen, trust others and give them responsibility, helping them grow. Those who knew him also remember his warmth, friendship and genuine concern for people, whether business owners, executives, professors or administrative staff. In the face of illness, family difficulties or any other need, he tried to be present.
Alongside this humanity, he was known for his magnanimity and entrepreneurial spirit. He thought big and wanted initiatives to rise to the scale of the needs they were intended to address. This was also how he understood San Telmo’s growth: with ambition, careful stewardship of resources and a constant pursuit of the highest quality. For him, elegance and simplicity were entirely compatible. Hence his insistence on caring for every detail with excellence, out of love for others and for God.
This high standard went hand in hand with remarkable humility and personal detachment. He did not seek the spotlight and understood governance as a form of service. He respected collegiate bodies, valued the judgment of others and attached great importance to preparing leadership succession and ensuring the continuity of institutions above personal affinities. His leadership was built on trust and example, not imposition.
At the heart of everything was his Christian faith and a profound sense of life’s transcendent dimension. He liked to say that things should be done “with soul and with calm”: with a supernatural outlook, using every human means available and then entrusting the result to God. This vision also explains his understanding of holistic education. San Telmo should not merely improve the professional capabilities of those who passed through its classrooms; it should also seek to leave a deep mark on them as people.
His legacy lives on in a way of understanding San Telmo built on service, freedom, excellence, care for people and the responsibility to contribute to a better society.
Javier López de la Puerta (1933–2009)
First President of San Telmo
Centre for Study, Initiative and Commitment
A centre created to honour the memory of Javier López de la Puerta and help ensure that the spirit he instilled in the San Telmo Foundation remains alive and is passed on to those who take part in this initiative.
This project was created with the ambition of becoming a place of learning for people who want to help advance and fulfil its mission. The spirit of the initiative brings together the behaviours and values that Javier López de la Puerta lived and transmitted as founder and driving force of the San Telmo Foundation.
Three ideas that guide every decision we make
Our identity is built on three principles that define who we are, where we want to contribute and how we work every day to achieve it. Together, they shape the way we understand executive education and the role companies play in building a better society.
Building a better society through business leadership
We aspire to be the benchmark institution in executive education, recognised not only for its academic rigour but for the impact that the people who pass through its classrooms have on their organizations and on society.
To be a benchmark institution for the positive impact our participants have on their companies and on society.
Educating those responsible for leading
To support business owners and senior executives in developing their judgment, strengthening their ability to make better decisions and to lead with professional excellence. All of this through a participative methodology based on shared experience, debate and reflection on real situations.
To support business owners and senior executives as they develop their judgment and make better decisions in the face of the challenges of leadership.
Developing leadership that transforms organizations
Our purpose goes beyond executive education. We want to contribute to more humane, competitive and sustainable organizations by developing leaders who are aware of the impact their decisions have on people and on society.
To develop leaders of integrity, aware that their decisions transform people, companies and, through them, society.
When learning becomes impact
Because we believe a business school fulfils its purpose when learning goes beyond the classroom and becomes real transformation for people, organizations and their communities.
From the south, with a global outlook
Over more than four decades, San Telmo has extended its academic activity, its business community and its knowledge production to different countries and continents. Today we operate in Europe, the Americas and Africa, while continuing to build new partnerships with companies, universities and institutions in Asia.
16 cities with academic activity
Our programs reach beyond our campuses, bringing us closer to business owners and executives in some of the world’s leading business environments, in countries such as Italy, Portugal, Morocco, the United States and China.
3 continents where we share knowledge
Europe, the Americas and Africa are currently part of our international academic activity, alongside the development of new institutional and business relationships with Asia.
+50 countries connected through our Alumni network
An international community of business owners and senior executives who keep their bond with San Telmo alive and multiply the exchange of experience, knowledge and opportunities beyond our classrooms.
#1 Spanish-language business school in the world
Our story began in Seville in 1982, and this is still our centre of gravity. But our way of understanding business leadership has never known borders.
Training and Integration Program: FORIN
The Javier López de la Puerta Centre hosts the FORIN Training and Integration Program, aimed at young people with functional diversity who, on reaching adulthood, need holistic education to support their personal, social and professional development.
The initiative grows out of the values of service to society that have been part of the San Telmo Foundation’s mission from the very beginning. It reflects a commitment to placing personal development at the service of a society in which everyone can find opportunities to contribute.
The diversity of FORIN participants means that the methodology must be varied and individualized. Sessions prioritise functional learning that supports each participant’s personal growth.
Creara
CREARA, the San Telmo Foundation’s Centre for Innovation and Business Creation, aims to create prosperity in society by fostering entrepreneurial ambition and providing intensive support for the launch and consolidation of innovative, high-growth business projects.
Its activities therefore focus on the three stages that must be present in society for high-growth companies to emerge.
