Meet Alvaro: Coaching MASc Students to Connect the Dots

Meet Alvaro! Alvaro runs group coaching sessions for MASc students. This is an integral part of our master’s programme at LIS, helping our students connect the dots between different knowledge fields and beyond.

Tell us about yourself and your background.

I’m a curious person who never followed a straight path. My journey has been an entrepreneurial adventure full of twists and turns across different contexts, geographies and disciplines.

As a teenager, I pursued a professional football career at Real Madrid before studying an electrical engineering degree. In my twenties, a life-changing trip to the University of Berkeley in California got me excited about Silicon Valley’s energy and startup culture, so I jumped on it.

Since then my life took a new turn, leading several for-profit and social impact enterprises, having to face the challenge of leading ed-tech businesses and raising venture capital in Europe and the US. I worked on a wide range of things such as a precursor of TEDx talks, a mobile-first MOOC platform, to scaling an Ed-Tech unicorn to Europe, or preparing the expansion of a Tech-School to the US and Singapore.

In 2019, I decided to start Minds Studio, a very different Company to the previous ones (this time, bootstrapped) that brings together a network of interdisciplinary individuals who believe it is possible to make learning feel like magic. We are a collaborating with schools and businesses to build communities of practice that help learners follow their curiosity. Through Minds Studio, I began working with LIS in 2020 during the university’s early days, and it’s been an incredible journey ever since.

Tell us about your role at LIS.

At LIS, my role centres around designing and running “group coaching” sessions. These sessions, which I run for the Master’s programme, are designed to help a group of 5-6 students connect the dots between different disciplines they’re learning at LIS and how it applies more broadly. It’s a blend of online and in-person sessions, and it’s been a fascinating way to reimagine how we approach learning. We’ve always been told to learn individually, but some incredible connections appear when you learn within a team, guided by a coach.

And this is what ties into my broader passion: building “communities of practice.” These are groups of people who regularly come together to explore and develop a skill or topic they’re passionate about. This journey is never about reaching a final destination like completing a degree but becoming a real practitioner— an endless process of discovery, growth and improvement. At LIS, I feel like we’ve the opportunity to create a community of interdisciplinary practitioners, which is a concept I’m deeply passionate and excited about.

Why did you decide to work for LIS?

LIS’s mission deeply resonates with me because it reflects my own curiosity and love of exploring many fields, not just one. My career has always been about connecting dots in unconventional ways, and LIS embodies that spirit. It’s also the people—LIS is an incredible community of like-minded individuals who are genuinely passionate about solving complex challenges that matter today.

What is one book you’d take with you to a desert island, and why?

I'm going to go for the practical approach. As I'm a city boy with very limited survival knowledge, I think I’d take "Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills" by David Wescott. I'd need to learn a lot about hunting, fishing, sheltering...otherwise I wouldn't last long!