Alvaro Fernandez

Current

CEO and Co-Founder at SharpBrains

Past

Director and GM, Assess2know at Edusoft
Director, Marketing and Business Development at Docent, Inc/ SumTotal Systems
Innovative Learning Initiative at Ashoka

Acting COO and Director, Marketing and Business Development at Bertelsmann On Line Spain & Lat Am
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company

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2 more...

Education

Stanford University
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Universiteit Antwerpen

Universidad de Deusto

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1 more...

Recommended

49 people have recommended Alvaro

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Market Research

Websites

Alvaro Fernandez’s Summary

Goal: to cover the growing Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health category (education and healthcare applications of cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology) with research-based market intelligence on the growing amount of information, assessments, products and solutions to improve cognitive health and performance.

Alvaro is SharpBrains' co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. He has been quoted by The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, and Associated Press, among others. Alvaro is a member of the Global Agenda Councils initiative run by the World Economic Forum, and recently co-authored the report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008.

He started his career at McKinsey & Company and led the launch and turnaround of several publishing and education companies in the US and Europe, including Bertelsmann On Line, Docent, Inc, and Edusoft, a unit of Houghton Mifflin. Alvaro has an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University, and enjoys teaching The Science of Brain Health and Brain Fitness at SFSU and UC-Berkeley Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. For extra brain exercise, he is an advisor to the management teams of social enterprises Ashoka and Arcandina.

Alvaro Fernandez’s Specialties:

General management, alliances, publishing, e-commerce, education, e-learning, enterprise software, social entrepreneurship, neuroscience, cognitive science, market research, speaking.

Alvaro Fernandez’s Experience

CEO and Co-Founder

SharpBrains

(Market Research industry)

September 2005 — Present (4 years 3 months)

SharpBrains is a market research & advisory firm devoted to helping companies, health providers, investors, policy makers and individuals understand and participate in the emerging brain fitness and cognitive health market through a variety of market-intelligence products and services.
Director and GM, Assess2know

Edusoft

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

December 2004 — September 2005 (10 months)
Director, Marketing and Business Development

Docent, Inc/ SumTotal Systems

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; SUMT; Computer Software industry)

March 2002 — February 2004 (2 years )

Turnaround. Now merged with Click2Learn to form SumTotal Systems
Innovative Learning Initiative

Ashoka

(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

1999 — 1999 (less than a year)
Acting COO and Director, Marketing and Business Development

Bertelsmann On Line Spain & Lat Am

(Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Internet industry)

August 1998 — July 1999 (1 year )
Business Analyst

McKinsey & Company

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Management Consulting industry)

September 1996 — August 1998 (2 years )

Alvaro Fernandez’s Education

Stanford University

MA , Education , March 2001 — January 2002
Stanford Graduate School of Business

MBA , September 1999 — June 2001
Universiteit Antwerpen

Erasmus scholarship 1995 — 1996
Universidad de Deusto

MA , Economics , 1991 — 1996

Additional Information

Alvaro Fernandez’s Websites:

Alvaro Fernandez’s Groups:

Board of Advisors of Arcandina, Red Internacional Ecoclubes, ABCD Juegos Educativos. Nominator and Faculty Member of Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
Nominator and Advisor to Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. Professor of "Exercising Our Brains" class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute