Aitor is a Basque partnership enthusiast who, after working for 5 years in the UK where he was the Wandle Trail Partnership Chair, moved to Central America and established ALIARSE, an organization which promotes public private partnerships for development (PPPD) of Costa Rica.
As the Executive Director of ALIARSE, Aitor leads the research, capacity building and the design and management of PPPD in a wide range of issues. These include but are not limited to; water conservation, recycling, climate change, road safety, breast cancer, English and the digital divide. Aitor is convinced that the complex social and environmental challenges that Costa Rica and the world face, require more effective public-private sector cooperation, which requires capacity building public and private leaders and brokering model partnerships.
Aitor has developed and carried out courses on corporate social responsibility and partnerships for development in most Central American countries and Colombia. He is the co-author of the book, “Guide to support CSR self-assessment process” for companies in Central America and the “Methodological guide for the design and management of public private partnerships for development”. He is currently co-editing a new book on the legal framework of public private partnerships in Costa Rica, and hopes to develop a partnership management system in 2014.
Aitor has a Masters in Environmental Impact Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University, UK. He has been a consultant on environmental, CSR and development initiatives, for organizations such as, German Technical Cooperation Agency (GIZ), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UICN) and the University for International Cooperation (UCI). He has been an evaluator for the Costa Rican Business Excellence Award and AMCHAM’s CSR Award on PPPD, and is currently a professor at the University of Costa Rica and at the International Centre for Development Studies.