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Today we open a new episode of Compromiso Iberaval with two conversations that, from very different worlds, point to the same great debate. How do we build a future when talent, business, and technology can no longer walk separately? First, we will be with Antonio Huertas, president of Mapfre and alumni of the University of Salamanca, to talk about a gap that Spain has been dragging for years: the distance between the university and the productive fabric, just when retaining talent and gaining competitiveness has become an economic urgency. And afterwards, we will sit down with Eduardo Delgado, founder and CEO of Roams, a technology company born in Palencia that has decided to sacrifice short-term comfort to defend a more human, more recurring, and more ambitious model in essential sectors. Two interviews, two perspectives, and one underlying question: What country, what companies, and what opportunities are we truly capable of creating?
Compromiso Iberaval.
Today we are joined by Antonio Huertas Mejías, president and chief executive of Mapfre since 2012, president of Fundación Mapfre since 2014, and president of Alumni of the University of Salamanca. An executive with an uncommon trajectory because he has built his entire career within the same company since he joined it in 1988 after graduating in law from the University of Salamanca itself. Born in Villanueva de la Serena, Badajoz, Huertas has held responsibilities in Spain and abroad, from regional management to the presidency of subsidiaries like Mapfre Praico and Mapfre Florida, before taking the helm of one of the great Spanish insurance multinationals. In this Compromiso Iberaval interview, we want to talk, we want to talk with the great executive, but also with the former student who has maintained a sustained link with the USAL and who today represents very clearly that bridge, so often invoked and not always well resolved, between university, business, and society. We will talk about employability, knowledge transfer, talent, territorial roots, corporate culture, and also, why not, the capacity of an academic institution to truly dialogue with the productive fabric. Huertas also arrives at a relevant moment for Mapfre. The company has entered the final stretch of its 2024-2026 strategic plan after surpassing 1 billion euros in net profit for the first time last year, while driving a brand renewal linked to a deeper transformation and deploying artificial intelligence use cases to gain speed and precision in customer service. With him, we want to understand what Salamanca gave him to get here, what still fails when we talk about an alliance between campus and business, and how one governs a great company in a time marked by innovation, global competition, and increasingly complex risks, from regulatory pressure to the climate. Antonio, how are you? Welcome.
Very well, José María. Thank you very much for inviting me and being able to participate in this magnificent podcast.
First of all, thank you for your time. We were saying off-air because we know it is very valuable, but we are going to touch on topics that we know you like because you are a former student of the University of Salamanca, a law student, and looking at your own trajectory, you can briefly tell us what the university gave you that is still decisive today and what you felt was missing at some point and that you have been seeing you would have needed over the years.
Well, it is first of all a very broad question, right? But it allows me to make some reflections. The university in general, right? The one in Salamanca and I understand that any public or private university, in this case the public one, which is the source in which I trained and developed, is the necessary but not sufficient instrument to acquire many skills, right? Beyond the technical, legal competencies, which are and have been very relevant, which have served me a lot throughout my life, they are still useful to me today, although obviously I rely on the true legal professionals who accompany me both inside and outside the company. But undoubtedly, maturity, the sense of responsibility, the vision of commitment, understanding also differentiation in debate as an instrument of negotiation and above all of learning, right? There are many elements that the university, and I believe that the University of Salamanca in that sense also has that background, not so much for its long longevity, but also for the important contribution that people from many different origins converge in that small place so beautiful, so historic, so relevant as Salamanca, which is a point of attraction and concentration of talent and different references that make us all better. Participating in that university life, which I understand has not changed much from the years I studied to now, but which is undoubtedly now subject to different challenges, which is what I understand we are going to talk about throughout.
We all speak with great affection as alumni. I am at the Pontifical, also in Salamanca, but that memory of Salamanca, those university years were the best that we idealize so much, right? But well, it is true, right? We always remember it with great affection and Salamanca has that additional emotional attraction value that makes us all feel very happy when we think about those years we spent in that beautiful city.
Let's get to the heart of the matter, which is the reason for this interview. You have been presiding over Alumni USAL for some time and it has to do with what is always said about connecting talent and business. What did you find and what have you been able to do with your hand over this time?
Well, the truth is that the presidency of Alumni is a coincidence. When they named me president of Mapfre in 2012, the rector Daniel Hernández Ruiz Pérez asked me, on the occasion that they also named me honorary member of the old Alumni, what was ASUS, the Association of Former Students of the University of Salamanca, which is the oldest of the Spanish public university, created in 1954. There, Rector Hernández Ruiz Pérez asked me for help, he said, 'Look, from a business perspective, how can we do to open up so that this association becomes a true engine, a true driving force of the relationship between the university, its graduates, and the private world, the business world, right?' And well, it was relatively easy to contact a group of professionals. It is true that many live in Madrid, because that is also the sign of the USAL, that a large part of its graduates do not stay in the environment of Salamanca, Ávila, and Zamora. Let's not forget the other two important provinces of influence of the university. And well, in these 13 or 14 years, I believe we have developed, thanks to the internal talent of Alumni, a group of professionals led by Ángel Hernández, magnificent, and then all those who over these 13 or 14 years have dedicated themselves to collaborating to try to, with our own experience, incentivize that relationship. I feel very proud. I believe I have done less than I should, but my belonging to this network, my being a bit the reference person, right?, for the three boards of directors that have passed and the connection with three or four different rectoral teams, has allowed us to truly create a magnificent, collaborative environment and above all of value contribution. In this last stage, the important consolidation has come, right? Not only for having managed to have more than 60,000 former students linked to Alumni, but for having taken that transcendent step which is bringing the business world to the university, right? And there I have to thank Isidoro García Lanís, the president of Global Exchange, his absolute willingness to collaborate and help. His public-private experience plus his business experience, which is relevant, is managing, along with his prestige, to attract a great lineup of entrepreneurs from the Castilla y León region to collaborate and facilitate the opening, right?, the creation of that transition, that bridge between the university and the business world.
You have a space, let's say, a perspective that allows you to see something that is often not valued in small territories. You come from Extremadura, I speak to you from Castilla y León, although we are right now in Madrid, we always have that idea of the so-called empty Spain, but in reality in places like Salamanca, in places like Valladolid, Palencia, Ávila, Burgos, etc., there are really initiatives that have enormous potential and that even supply services, products to much of the world and are not known. What is happening there?
It is so, right? I agree, José María, with this interpretation. Indeed, I am from a town in Extremadura, a region that is less populated, I like to call it that and not empty because it has always been less populated. The population is relatively important for the enormous territory they have, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura. And they are regions that have and contribute a large part of the value that the rest of the territory needs. We are talking not only about talent, which is fundamental, right? Like the University of Salamanca itself or the one in Valladolid or León or Extremadura, but also they contribute a large part of the energy consumed in this country, a large part of the water that exists, most of the renewable energy within that large energy production, and they have other relevant aspects, right?, that make them very necessary and also very valuable for the future. The social perception of how to anchor people to the territory is changing. The huge, huge cities no longer work for us, right? And well, Valladolid is very big, Salamanca is smaller, but the big ones we have always referred to and where our young people, ourselves, had to migrate because we understood there was no labor space for us. Clearly that perception, that paradigm is breaking and there are possibilities to anchor the population. It is true that not only based on traditional economies, the company that exists in my land of origin and in Salamanca, Valladolid, Zamora, in general is a small company, so its own ambition and its own capacity to innovate and transform is much more limited by the product, service environment. But well, we have a spectacular primary sector that is waiting for innovation and transformation in Castilla y León. We have, as I was talking about energy, water, we have the talent that comes out of the university is usable to create much more innovation and in that I have to highlight that Salamanca, the USAL, has evolved a lot, right? It is no longer a university only of humanists, which it still is fortunately, right? In what has to do with studies, even mine in law, but also, right?, engineering, pharmacy, biotechnology, engineering from the point of view of robotics, artificial intelligence, has grown a lot and they are extremely important values that can attract attention so that not only that small and medium-sized company in Castilla y León looks, but large international companies can feel attracted to put their laboratories there, can put their facilities taking advantage of that enormous talent that comes out of the USAL and which, I have to recognize, is still not sufficiently well utilized and many young people from those provinces still come to Madrid or Barcelona or Bilbao or Valencia to try to develop their careers.
We usually say, Antonio, that politics often lags behind what society dictates. In the academic field, something similar sometimes happens, that is, that too often the university arrives late to what companies actually demand. I know it's not a simple question and I know giving solutions to this matter is complicated, but I don't know if you are somewhat optimistic in this sense. In recent years, is the university adapting to what companies demand?
Yes, I believe it is not a problem of the university itself, it is a situation derived from the public governance system that our culture has had for 2000 years, right? Coming, right?, from Roman law, from the relevant, very important function that must continue to be defended of the public official as a guarantor of equal opportunities, of controlling public money, of defining transparent and efficient processes and above all guaranteeing for the citizen, which in a way have also determined the governance of the public university itself. The university is a consequence of that society, it is not to blame for what we are questioning. I believe we must be understanding and at the same time demanding, understanding, because that is our reality and it is still a good and fundamental system to guarantee those rights of citizens regarding the efficient and correct use of public money, which let's not forget, the public university as an element of public service is paid for by all taxpayers. But indeed, the current process of approaching society is much more demanding than we required 30, 40, 80 years ago, right? And I'm not talking about 500, 600 years ago when the university was at its peak and was one of the few relevant ones that related Spain with America and its development in that transoceanic exchange. Now the university clearly has always been, but now much more it has to be focused, right? Not in a finalistic way, because the objective of university education is not to train you exclusively in the competencies a job position requires. It has to give you a much broader, more general, more comprehensive training to create critical spirit, analytical capacity, sense of citizenship, knowledge of institutionalism, all that is very relevant, but then indeed then you have to work, then you have to earn a living and as I was saying, a weakness of the economy, weakness, a reality of the Castilian-Leonese and Extremaduran economy, for what touches me in my land is the small size of companies. So, we cannot expect miracles. Our small and medium-sized entrepreneurs do enough opening every day, paying their taxes, paying their employees and developing a small business plan for their environment. The thing is that this is transforming. We already see Castilian-Leonese companies that are able with a very basic but very technified structure to export and create international trade and create value from Castilla y León without leaving there, but it is also true that many of them are not very competitive and are going to have a problem now of succession, transformation, adaptation to that new reality. Well, in that combination we have to favor that the talent that comes out of the USAL knows better the competencies and skills that are now demanded and they are not all hard, right? Because the technical knowledge, I insist, even in new technologies is very high, right? The AI laboratories that the USAL itself has and that the rector Corchado himself is one of its main drivers, right? I am also referring to all those soft skills that are necessary in today's society, communication, empathy, multiculturalism, knowledge of the most varied environments, capacity, of course, languages, capacity to travel and live in more sophisticated environments, not more sophisticated, but more different that allow us to better understand others. That is the world we face and that is where the university also has to make those bridges. That is where Alumni enters as a fundamental engine, right? As a connection between that business world that should not be questioned because it is a business world that does what it can many times and sometimes more than it can, understanding the complex regulatory and tax environment in which they operate. And well, the university is also true that the teachers, the university professionals, who in general have focused a lot inward to improve their teaching capacity, but sometimes have not related directly with that business world that expects something complementary, not what they produce or what they generate as value, which is very important, but additional values to complement, as I said, that capacity of knowledge of young people. And there we do not pretend that the university does it, we pretend to help the university so that with the connection of business, third-sector organizations, also public institutions, we can build much more flexible, complementary systems that help improve that training of young people so that the private world can directly access that enormous source of talent generation and development that is the public university of Salamanca.
The University of Salamanca is a very powerful brand. You were talking about the other side of the Atlantic, it is for many people who come to study from different countries. But not only the University of Salamanca, Mapfre, Alumni companies are also gaining that relevance that is, let's say, what it was created for in the beginning, right? I don't know if that coexistence, you have also spoken about the problem of company growth, the difficulties they face when dealing with bureaucracy, dealing with union problems when they have to grow, etc. I don't know if that coexistence between small corporations, which is what makes up the bulk of the business fabric, not only in Castilla y León, in Extremadura, in all of Spain, with larger companies, with institutions and that is something that is encompassing Mapfre, Alumni companies. I don't know if you think it is a potential for one to look at the other. The big one can learn from the small one, the small one from the big one, obviously. I don't know how you are seeing it.
Yes, José María, you say it very well, right? I believe that indeed I, as a representative of a large company, there is nothing that fills me with more satisfaction than seeing how thousands and thousands of small companies can become the true engine of relationship and development of your own large company. Look, at Mapfre we have it very clear. We seek association, we seek alliances and when we find companies that can integrate our value chain in the relationship with the client, we are very interested in them collaborating. Nowadays we cannot do everything. We cannot be the best at everything we did in the past. Well, sometimes we think about it, right? But today, no. And having companies that specialize in specific aspects, that improve your capacity to reach, as I said, the client, provide a better service, technify something that internally makes you lose focus, is a great value. That is why, indeed, having more modern small and medium-sized companies in Castilla y León, Salamanca, Valladolid, Zamora, would be a transcendent element, right? The large company wants to continue growing and can help a lot for the small company to grow, not by making exclusive clients for them to live and die by you. It's not about that because that endogamy doesn't help much either. They have to be open companies, companies that relate to the world, not just geographically in the environment they are in, that are well technified, that have adequate professionals and that, well, are creating technologies and processes that can help larger companies. I believe there are sectors, and I was talking about the primary sector, which is fundamental and where important initiatives are already being seen where the connection of large, medium, and small companies is working, because in the end, well, we have the productive part, we have the territory, we have the installed capacities to be able to take advantage of it. That connection, look, personal anecdote, my father was always a small businessman, very small, who evolved what he could within his business trajectory and he combined very well and said, 'I need large companies to give me stability in the business, but who I live off is the small businessman I also relate to.' That connectivity between companies is fundamental. There is an important fact, right? In Spain, around 90% of companies are generally connected to each other and take advantage of that relationship. However, there is less connectivity between the company and the university. Barely 20% of Spanish companies interact with universities to try to extract a bit more value and connect it. So, I don't see it so much as a weakness of connectivity between companies, but something more important that needs to be improved: that connectivity with the source of talent, which is the university itself, whether public or private.
We will talk more about talent, but the University of Salamanca, to change the pace a bit, Antonio, has decided to award you an honorary doctorate. I don't know if you value that recognition, which I suppose is one of the things one doesn't expect but receives with open arms, as a prize for that brilliant personal trajectory you have or as a way to reinforce the idea of what we are talking about, that alliance or that reinforcement of the work or the hand-in-hand that the university and business have.
Yes. I don't want it to sound like misunderstood humility, right? Obviously it is an enormous pride and I feel really very satisfied with that recognition as the next honorary doctor from the Faculty of Law of the University of Salamanca. For me it is a true honor, but of course I obviously didn't expect it, right? After such a long trajectory, I believe with many more lights than shadows, right? With a development in the leadership of Mapfre, but many other tasks that I have developed throughout my life and well, I am quite comprehensive and I try to develop many tasks at the same time, most of them business or practically all within the company, but I also collaborate socially and I like, right?, to contribute with my small contribution to unite and integrate and create more social value. It is extremely valuable, but I would recognize it fundamentally for Alumni, that is, Salamanca in short comes to recognize that Alumni in these 15 years coming from the old ASUS and we must recognize the heroic effort made in the past by all the people and teams and past presidents of ASUS with Angelita, with Enrique Cavero and others and now in these latest times with Alberto Alonso, with José Luis Fuentecilla and with Raquel Flores herself, who have been the presidents of the board of directors and the rectors who have accompanied us, in a way the city of Salamanca itself 2 years ago gave us the gold medal of the city itself, right? That is, there is a gratitude and that is very important both from the city and from the USAL for the effort that has been made to develop Alumni and try to multiply the presence and the voice of the University of Salamanca in Spain and in the world. I believe part of that doctorate comes from that, but undoubtedly it also comes because it represents one of the largest companies in this country, a committed company, a company that has a presence throughout the national territory, but which is at the same time a great insurance multinational, the largest Spanish insurance multinational in the world. And well, I represent more than 200,000 professionals who work either as employees or as collaborators in this house. And in a way, also the Ibero-American relationship, right? The transatlantic bridge that exists, which the USAL represented in the origin training many of those who went there and contributed to creating that concept of Ibero-America, but also what Mapfre represents today in Ibero-America, well, there is a combination of elements that make me feel very satisfied and that really explain all this. United to the enormous generosity of Rector Juan Manuel Corchado and his team who have understood that I can represent. I believe that in the end everyone in my town in Extremadura, in Cachillaleo, in Lausán also seek references, right? And having references that have passed through your classrooms, as was the case of Ignacio Sánchez-Galán and other people, right?, who coming from that geographical area, have had geographical recognitions, well also in this case, not being from Salamanca but having studied there, it is a reference that can also be interesting for many young people to say, look, they not only give you the opportunity to graduate here, but over time if you are a good citizen and have a good development, you can become a doctor, why not? So very happy and very grateful for it.
We were talking a month ago, if I remember correctly, which was the day the Alumni awards were given out, a little over a month, the Alumni awards to several companies, among them Iberaval. And you were telling me that there is a province of Castilla y León, in fact it is my province, I am from Ávila, that has a very relevant weight in terms of employment, Mapfre activity. The prize, which is a prize, that doctorate is for Antonio Huertas, but it is true that Mapfre also has a relevant impact on the economy of a territory that is integrated within the University of Salamanca, like Ávila, for example. I understand it is more, right?
Yes, that's right. Well, first of all, and I haven't done it and I apologize, to thank all the friendly companies, but precisely Iberaval, right? Because it was also recognized in that act. But we thank the generosity and the extremely important contribution that companies like Iberaval, like the one you represent, are making because they have understood, right?, the genesis of the project, what is sought with friendly companies and how to help strengthen that link and above all with the ultimate goal of supporting the young people of our country and our region to better find their professional trajectory, at least the entry one. Then the world and time make each one position themselves where they want to operate. Returning to Ávila, indeed Ávila is a very beloved province for Mapfre people, right? The people of Ávila know us very well. We go there, well, we go with more continuity. We know the city, we know how well you eat, how hospitable its people are and the very pleasant environment. Very cold in winter, it is true, but the very pleasant environment that has meant for Mapfre to effectively develop, well, have the largest world center for vehicle repairability innovation which is CERBIMAP, have one of the reference contact centers of Mapfre in Spain. And well, at the time also what happens is that with technological changes it had to be closed, we had a great data processing center in Ávila and then many offices in the province, which is the Mapfre model, right? Being close to clients and developing permanent contact having our delegates and employees very close to clients to serve them well. That is why, indeed, Ávila is one of the great provinces for Mapfre, both emotionally and above all in the numbers regarding the number of jobs and presence and development we have in the province. Therefore, it touches us very closely also from that part the relationship with the University of Salamanca because it is another of the provinces of influence of the USAL area.
I told you we would return to talent and it is something we have already commented on in this interview. Do you think Salamanca knows how to sell the talent it has? That is, you were also saying, many students who finish university think I have to go to Madrid. In Madrid is the solution or to Barcelona or even abroad. This has changed a lot in the last two decades. Do you think Salamanca is sold well? That it still has to do much more?
Well look, there is a very important fact, José María. I believe that around 35% of USAL students come directly from Salamanca, Ávila, and Zamora, like 20% from the province and then the other two provinces. That is, it is very little, it is a substantial difference with other universities that are fed mostly by students from their area of origin. That is, it is more difficult for a Valladolid native, a León native, or a Catalan to stay in Salamanca when they have gone to study. Why did we go to Salamanca, those of us who are not from Salamanca? Well, something that is still very valuable, right? The reputation, the academic seal is a seal for life, we say a brand for life is the motto of Alumni, right? That accompanies us all our life. Every time someone asks me where I studied and I say the University of Salamanca, the smile and admiration are general. It has always been like that, right? That is, that prestige and that general valuation that Salamanca is different and has helped us be better people and better professionals, that we have had enormous luck by studying in Salamanca, that is obvious. Now, that translates then into a strengthened education. Well, I believe that when we look, for example, at university rankings, Salamanca is not bad, it is in the middle point of our universities, the 20th, 21st, 22nd. In those international rankings there are activities and I was talking, right? Not only the humanistic ones, right?, where it is...
Salamanca always was a university of full professors, as they used to say, right? The best professors would pass through, at least a great part of their professional development would take place in Salamanca's classrooms, and it has always enjoyed that prestige. Now it's no longer so much that hallmark of the names of professors, but rather the capacity for research, the capacity for innovation, the capacity for transformation. And there I was saying that indeed, in these new capabilities, Salamanca is developing cutting-edge projects. Recently too, the flight school itself, having incorporated the Matacán school into the university's own discipline, gives it again an innovative character and a different vision of how to build a much broader, much more comprehensive university project, trying to offer solutions to all of society's needs. I believe we are on the right path, that we need to be optimistic, always see the glass as half full, and think that there is indeed enormous desire to revitalize that vision of Salamanca as the great educational center for training and generating social value for Spanish society, and as you were saying, not only Spanish, because nowadays we shouldn't criticize young people for wanting to go abroad — it's actually an obligation for us to go abroad at some stage in our lives to open our eyes, open our minds, open our ears, and learn and listen to different people. And I believe that in that regard too, Salamanca creates capabilities. Let's not forget the thousands and thousands of Latin Americans who come to Salamanca, summer courses, to be part of its special development programs. In other words, it's an international conglomerate, the most international university our country has always had. Nowadays, private schools and universities have certainly created a different market there, a different competition, but it's not competition, it's spaces. And Salamanca has well established that space of educating in Spanish, of relating with Latin America, of being a transformative link for much of what is today the Western, Latin American society. It is born in Salamanca and develops thanks to Salamanca. Now it's our turn to continue driving forward and leveraging the new capabilities and skills that society requires so that our young people can obtain them and integrate them into their professional development wherever they may go.
Antonio, we are at Mapfre's headquarters in Bajada de Onda. They have several impressive buildings, spectacular facilities. And we see here behind — I'm going to take the opportunity to ask you some questions about Mapfre — we see behind us the new Mapfre logo that was unveiled a few months ago, and I, for example, saw the explanation of everything that was the composition and so on. In recent times there have been cases of corporate identity changes, as it's called, right? Some more positive, some more negative, some more pleasant, with better results, let's say. I understand you're happy. The clover is very visible — I'm going to say it in a way you'll understand, because I'd say it wrong — and I think it has been, or at least when you read the explanation and understand where they're heading, a change that, apart from the justification of why it was made, the integration and so on of concepts, is a positive change.
Yes, that's right. I'm going to tell you an anecdote that some people know because I repeat it — I've repeated it many times throughout my life. I was the first worker, the first employee of Mapfre to come to this building when it was still under construction. My bosses at the time decided that I should already be based here, so I consider this central building — the part that has since grown a lot — I know it as well as or even better than my own home, because it's part of my existence. When I left Salamanca, I came to Madrid, spent a year preparing to be a tax expert, and in the end I was seduced by a blind ad that said they were looking for professionals who wanted to develop in the insurance field. And well, that was Mapfre, and here I ended up. Indeed, well, that Mapfre that we have been caring for, developing, and driving forward over the last 35 years has undergone enormous transformation processes. It had already undergone them before, right? Since its creation in 1933, this company has gone through many transformation processes to become what it is today, as I was saying, one of the great leaders of Spanish insurance and the world leader in the Spanish-speaking insurance world. The rebranding process, the new corporate identity, is much more than a logo. It's a process of abstraction of what we have been capable of developing in the company and transforming it into something tangible and visible. Speaking of the clover — don't think that everyone knew what it was, that it was a clover, it was a circle where there was a kind of flower, but indeed it was a three-leaf clover that represented something our elders in the past wanted to create, which was capital, labor, and society, right? Those were the three pillars of a company. That remains valid today, and that's why we've kept it, right? There were temptations to think about whether it was needed or not. We continue to think they are essential elements, but above all we wanted to give new life to both the color, the brand, and the clover — give it greater flexibility, greater dynamism, a fresher, more digital color, integrate it better into digital assets, make it much more visible, and make Mapfre's own employees, agents, delegates, and collaborators feel a bit more responsible and complicit in what this new brand means, right? Living through a rebranding process is something a generation probably experiences once. It was my turn — I work in a smaller company — and it was my turn.
You lived it, and in a certain way you know what it's like, right? Well, it's an opportunity for a generation — I don't know when the next time will be — but in any case, we wanted to reinforce those values that are the same ones we've been developing over generations, transferred to the new vision of a much more digital, much more open, much more connected company with its audience, simpler. The logo is very simple, very friendly, very inclusive, and we are very proud. And indeed, having done it worldwide simultaneously in more than 30 countries has been a spectacular achievement, and everyone has reinforced their commitment to the company by seeing themselves as an active part in this brand implementation process.
You have to congratulate the company and those of you who make it up, because as I say, it's a small company — Veraval, 100 employees — and I know what that entails. So, congratulations. The effort is proportionally the same, so I also congratulate you for having done it at the time, because surely you also had the desire to transform it, and success in execution is ultimately the greatest satisfaction that remains from an intense process like this. Let's start wrapping up, Antonio. Two last questions. At the beginning of the interview I was mentioning that Mapfre has grown notably and is in a good moment, we could say, in financial terms. In fact, last year was a magnificent year. But looking ahead, I don't know if you detect fragilities beyond the global context we're in, the famous uncertainty, but I don't know if there are fragilities that you, let's say, have your eye on at this moment beyond the obvious ones.
Well, indeed we are very satisfied. In a way, it's nothing different from what we expected. There have been processes of enormous impact on economies, right? The financial crisis that began in 2008 affected the financial sector in general. The insurance sector was not implicitly or explicitly involved in that solvency or business development crisis, but obviously with less economic activity, the major global insurers had to pull back and be a bit more prudent. Then came the pandemic, the inflationary crisis, the tariffs crisis, the unfortunate new wars — these are complex environments, but insurance is accustomed to living with complexity. Insurance is born precisely to try to alleviate that complexity and absorb it so that clients suffer it to a lesser degree. It's never completely eliminated, but it is eliminated in an important way in the lives of companies and citizens. So we live with that complexity, but we assume that there are increasingly more risks that can exert much more pressure on business activity in general and also on the insurance sector. The insurer is a corporate actor that has a double obligation: first, to protect itself, and then to protect its clients. If we don't protect ourselves well, we won't be able to help our clients. If we become victims of the cycle, we would have an enormous problem in meeting the need to serve our clients. That's why our decision-making, investment, and growth processes must be countercyclical to ensure that when bad times come for the general economic sector, we are there to accompany and help our clients. Cyber risk has become a great threat to our way of life and our economies worldwide. The issue of climate events, increasingly relevant and extreme. The issue of what we call secondary risks, which are no longer so secondary — we're talking about floods, fires, which as we are seeing, are becoming increasingly important. In Castilla y León, we had the misfortune this year of suffering it — last year — in an impactful way. Well, these are all risks that increasingly absorb more capacity for analysis, research, and proposing solutions that can help us understand how we can help and improve society, public authorities, and the private sector to protect themselves. We are talking about a new world for which there is capacity to seek solutions, but we always also seek and ask for complicity between the private and public sectors, so that we can build solutions that help citizens live more peacefully, because from no perspective in solitude can these new circumstances be addressed many times. The public sector can provide important solidity, but the drive, understanding, and flexibility that the private sector has is very necessary, and the private sector also often doesn't have the financial capacity that these great events and transformations require. These transformations we are already suffering on one hand, but on the other hand they are also hardening us, making us capable of preparing ourselves to reinforce ourselves and be more resilient for the future.
That countercyclical capacity for work is shared by Iberdrola with you as well. Iberdrola is always there, as they say, in the tough times, right? And it's also an example of public-private collaboration. Absolutely. There's an issue that has been bombarding us — it's been around for a long time, but it's been bombarding us for about three years now — which is artificial intelligence. Obviously, not just large companies, but small ones too are implementing it. It's a help above all for mechanical processes, but I understand that obviously, apart from having come to stay, it's a tool that is also helping large companies. I don't know if you can briefly summarize how Mapfre benefits from artificial intelligence. We always talk about biases, you have to be careful with certain things, right? But it is true that it's a useful tool.
José María, you're talking about something — and I don't know if the people listening know this — but with someone who has always been very committed to technology. Being a lawyer, trained in law, when we created the Association of Asper Students, the first grant we received at the University of Salamanca — I'm talking 38 years ago — was precisely to buy a small computer, a small machine to help us develop activities in a more creative way. A lot has happened since then, but I am an advanced user of artificial intelligence tools. I use them in my private life and I use them in business because I am convinced that tools must be integrated, not ignored, not despised, but quite the opposite — we should take advantage of their capabilities. When the first Ford vehicles came out on the American market, people thought society was going to collapse because stagecoach drivers would disappear and would create a chain reaction of real shock. None of that happened. I believe we are indeed facing a different world, an exciting world in which we must assume with courage, but also with rigor and values, this transformational change. From Mapfre, I insist, we currently have more than 160 use cases worldwide, where we already have — in fact, this morning I was reviewing with the Director of Technologies — 10 of them that are already generating tremendous value in internal processes and also in client relationships. They are helping us solve many initiatives that until now were extremely costly. The first thing we must assume is that this is not against people — quite the opposite, this is with people. People, the human element, must be the transcendent element that manages, develops, and takes advantage of technology. That's why Mapfre has been one of the companies — I don't know if there are others, but certainly the first in Spain — to release an AI manifesto three years ago that seeks to defend humanism in the relationship with artificial intelligence. What I call anthropocentrism — that it be the person who manages, who owns, and who extracts the value to take advantage of it professionally and also personally, I insist, to improve their life, but that the governance and the rules of integration in processes and in the relationship with the client be absolutely transparent and communicated efficiently to the client and to the stakeholder groups. So, under those principles and that humanistic vision of technology and AI, I believe we must defend its use, take advantage of it, and extend it at Mapfre. Furthermore, we have a firm commitment not to put our people's jobs at risk just because we are going to automate more processes with AI. Quite the opposite. We will continue offering reskilling processes — that is, professional learning, competency improvement — so that all the people working at Mapfre who may have some activity that could be impacted by this technology can continue taking advantage of it, using it, and being part of the transformation process rather than being victims of it. And that is the lesson we have learned over time in other technology integration processes, and now we assume it may have a greater impact, but with that we also assume a greater commitment to help people at Mapfre continue progressing with these technologies.
