Smart Globalization - In the Age of China and India

Panelist Bio

Enrique J. Rueda-Sabater

Enrique is Director, Strategy and Business Development for Cisco in Emerging Markets since 2006. His main focus are the opportunities, risks and strategic business models for the different types of emerging economies. His role also involves working on a unique ‘win-win’ strategy: Cisco’s business in emerging markets will grow inasmuch as its activities help those countries to harness the potential of IT and network connectivity for economic growth, competitiveness and social inclusion. As part of his work with Cisco, Enrique has co-authored chapters in the two most recent Global Information Technology Reports of the World Economic Forum.

Before joining Cisco, Enrique spent two decades at the World Bank:

• His initial assignment involved him in operations in East Asia, Latin America, East Africa and the former Soviet Union. He then led the staff team supporting two rounds of IDA ‘replenishments’ (about $20 billion raised).
• In 2000 Enrique was strategic advisor to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and published a related journal article on “The Bargaining Power of Developing Countries to Attract Foreign Investment” in Corporate Governance.
• Through 2001, as a senior advisor to the UN, he was one of the key players preparing the way for the “Monterrey Consensus” at the summit on Financing for Development in 2002.
• From early 2002 until joining Cisco in 2006, still at the World Bank, Enrique was director of corporate strategy and integrated risk management. In addition to being responsible for managing annual planning and risk assessment exercises he developed tools for strategic choice analysis and led a team developing long-term scenarios (“Rehearsing for the Future: the World in 2020”).

He is a Spanish national whose first job (a long time ago—just after getting his MBA—at ESADE, Barcelona) was in brand management with Procter & Gamble, in Madrid. Enrique then went back to graduate school (in Economics, Agricultural Economics and Economic Policy first at the University of Reading and then at Pennsylvania State University). He speaks English, Spanish, French and rusty Swahili

Enrique has been visiting professor at ESADE and at the University of Malaysia and has lectured for academic, think tank and business audiences in China, Europe, Latin America and the US (including on his work on Scenarios for the World in 2020). Enrique is currently a member of the Global Business Network and vice-chair of the non-profit Center for Transformation and Strategic Initiatives.