Marisa Arriola, Gipuzkoa gold medal in recognition of her ‘career in support of entrepreneurs’

The Provincial Council will award the highest distinction of the territory to the Managing Director of BIC Gipuzkoa, whom it considers ‘a key figure in the gestation, deployment and consolidation of business projects’.

The Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa has decided to award the Gold Medal of Gipuzkoa to Maria Luisa Arriola, Managing Director of BIC Gipuzkoa Berrilan since 1998. This award recognises her ‘exemplary career in support of entrepreneurs in Gipuzkoa’, highlighting her work in the development of innovative business projects and her contribution to gender equality in the economic and managerial sphere.

The Provincial Council considers Arriola ‘a key figure in the gestation, deployment and consolidation of business projects’. With this highest distinction, it highlights his important contribution ‘to competitiveness, the strengthening of the entrepreneurial culture and the generation of new opportunities in Gipuzkoa’, based on values such as ‘innovation, collaboration, vision of the future and social commitment’.

The regional spokesperson, Irune Berasaluze, who announced this recognition, highlighted that Arriola’s work, ‘together with the BIC Gipuzkoa team, has been fundamental for the creation and consolidation of more than 500 companies’. Many of these companies include an important technological component and high added value, thus contributing to the generation of wealth and quality employment.

She also highlighted its contribution to strategic projects for Gipuzkoa, such as sustainable mobility, quantum technologies and biosciences, in the latter case, through its fundamental role in the Biosciences Foundation and the initiative to strengthen advanced therapies GANTT.

According to the spokeswoman, Arriola ‘has been and continues to be a key figure in the ecosystem of support for entrepreneurs, offering them guidance and advice to define their idea, create and accelerate the company, and consolidate it in the market. Providing knowledge, access to financing and the R&D ecosystem, generating networks, and being, in short, a great facilitator in the complex and long process of setting up and consolidating a company. From proximity, simplicity, empathy, and with a commendable level of commitment’. Along the same lines, he pointed out that she embodies ‘two fundamental elements of Gipuzkoa, such as entrepreneurial dynamism and commitment to solidarity, synthesised in the legislative slogan Ekin, Zaindu, Bizi. A double aspect that we see, for example, in its participation in the Gipuzkoa Association Against Cancer, which seeks to improve the quality of life of people suffering from this disease and their families, promoting research and raising awareness. Whether through entrepreneurship or volunteering, behind it beats this vocation to make a better society’.

Berasaluze also stressed that Arriola ‘has paved the way towards equality between women and men in the economic and business world, which is still an unresolved issue, while at the same time making the values of entrepreneurship with an egalitarian vision visible’. These values,’ she stressed, “faithfully represent Gipuzkoa’s commitment to integral wellbeing, the vision of the territory as a place of opportunities and future, where all people can develop full and meaningful life and professional projects”.

He has promoted the recognition of the work of entrepreneurs and the promotion of entrepreneurial culture ‘with ambition’, through awards such as Entreprenari, Manuel Laborde, etc. Work of recognition that she has also received in her person as ‘best manager of Gipuzkoa 2021’ by the Association of Businesswomen, Professionals and Managers of Gipuzkoa (ASPEGI). The presentation of the Gold Medal will be held on 12 December at the Provincial Palace, in a ceremony that will bring together a large representation of the economic and associative fabric of Gipuzkoa.

Marisa Arriola Nieto holds a degree in Geography and History, specialising in Medieval History, from the University of Salamanca, a Masters in People Management from the UPV-EHU, and a General Management Programme (PDG) from IESE Business School. She has worked in very different fields during her professional career, such as process consultancy in the industrial sector, before taking over the reins of BIC Gipuzkoa Berrilan in 1998, where she is currently working. She also teaches at different universities: Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship in the MBA-EMBA at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, guest lecturer in the Master’s Degree in Psychology and Psychosocial Intervention at the UPV-EHU, and is a member of the Chair of Entrepreneurship at the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, participating in various lectures on strategy in this field at both national and international level. Since 2022 she has also been president of the Association Against Cancer in Gipuzkoa.