Finance, judgement and purpose

Santiago Minguez has spent nearly three decades working at the intersection of finance, entrepreneurship and education. His career has moved across international investment banking, independent advisory, academia and, more recently, impact investing — different environments connected by the same discipline: understanding what creates value, exercising sound judgement and taking responsibility for their consequences.

Finance has been the common thread. From advising major corporations, entrepreneurs and privately owned businesses on complex transactions to teaching generations of executives and finance professionals at ESADE, his approach has consistently combined analytical rigour with practical judgement. Many of the situations encountered professionally have found their way — always preserving confidentiality — into the classroom, while years of teaching have reinforced his conviction that the best financial decisions require not only technical expertise, but also the ability to interpret, communicate and lead.

His own education at ESADE also left a lasting mark. As a Jesuit institution, the business School embedded values of responsibility, service and contribution to society across the different disciplines he studied — shaping a belief that professional success carries with it a broader responsibility to put knowledge and experience to meaningful use. Those values have remained present throughout his career and ultimately found their fullest expression in GENIVS.

GENIVS is the convergence of Santiago’s experience in corporate finance, entrepreneurship and education. As Founding Partner and CEO, Santiago is applying financial discipline, transaction experience and institutional investment principles to one of Spain’s most pressing social challenges: enabling young households to access quality affordable housing and build independent lives. The objective is not to choose between financial performance and social impact, but to design an investment model in which both reinforce each other.

Across these different roles, his working style has remained deliberately senior-led: staying close to the detail, challenging assumptions, communicating directly and maintaining personal accountability for the decisions he leads.

“Finance provides the discipline. Experience provides judgement. Purpose determines where to apply both.”