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About Us

Promoting friendship and understanding between the people of Britain and Spain.

Cultural events and activities

Membership of the BritishSpanish Society is open to anyone with an interest in Spain and its culture. We are a non-political organisation and charity. We host regular events and activities which provide our members with opportunities to integrate and form friendships.

Upcoming Events
About Us - Cultural events and activities
About Us - Scholarships and bursaries

Scholarships and bursaries

We are proud of our charitable mission to award scholarships to British and Spanish post-graduate students every year. Thanks to the generosity of our principal supporters we hope to encourage valuable research and learning which we believe to be beneficial for both the UK and Spain.

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Growing membership

Our central mission is to bring British and Spanish people together. Many of our members have lived, worked or studied in Spain, have a family connection to Spain or have simply enjoyed holidaying in Spain and want to pursue their love of the language and culture further.

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About Us - Growing membership

Governance

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Persona 1

Sir Anthony Cooke-Yarborough

BritishSpanish Society chairman

Sir Anthony Cooke-Yarborough was appointed as BritishSpanish Society chairman in November 2024. Sir Anthony is private banking chair of EFG International, a global private banking group headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, having been CEO of its UK subsidiary EFG Private Bank from 2011 to 2019. He has previously held senior roles at Barclays, Merrill Lynch and Lloyds, including international postings in Spain, South America and the US.

Persona 2

Dame Mary Marsh

Deputy Chair, Strategic Review

Dame Mary has held a range of governance experience as a charity trustee and in wider cross-sector non-executive roles including non-executive director of HSBC Bank plc, a member of the Governing Body at London Business School, a Director on the board of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), a Trustee of Teach First and a Patron of the EY Foundation. Dame Mary was the first independent Chair of Trustees at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) a role she held for five years, until October 2021. She was also a member of the Financial Inclusion Commission from 2014 – 21. In the earlier stages of her life journey she was a teacher, including as a deputy head and then headteacher of two comprehensive schools. She was Chief Executive of the NSPCC from 2000 – 08. After this she went on to be the Founding Director of Clore Social Leadership until 2015. Dame Mary met her bilingual late husband Juan Enrique Marsh at university. She, her four sons and their families, continue to have a great love of Spain and its people.

Persona 3

Michael Morley

Vice-Chair (in Spain)

Michael Morley is an experienced Chief Executive and Board Chair having held senior positions at DEUTSCHE BANK AG, COUTTS & CO and ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND INTERNATIONAL. In his early career he undertook International assignments for Lloyds Bank in Buenos Aires, Argentina Peru. Michael hold an MA in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge and continues to read extensively in European languages.

Persona 4

Juan Reig Mascarell

Treasurer

Juan Reig Mascarell grew up in Denia, Alicante, lived for a year in the United States and went on to complete a BA in Business Administration in Valencia. In 1999, after finishing University, Juan moved to London and soon became a member of the BritishSpanish Society. Juan is a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, where he trades corporate credit within the Markets Division.

Persona 5

Cristina Álvarez-Campana

Trustee - Head of Events and Institutional Relations

Cristina Alvarez-Campana has been a member of The British Spanish-Society since 2014. She moved to London with her family in 2012, from Madrid where she worked in Ministry of Public Works for more than 16 years. She holds a master’s in law, MBA IE Business School and is hugely experienced in change management and business development.

Persona 6

Amy Bell

Head of Communications, Social Media, Press and Data

Before joining the Financial Times as commissioning editor in 2010 Amy Bell taught English in Madrid. Amy has a special interest in Spanish language, art and culture and edited the BritishSpanish Society’s flagship publication, La Revista, from 2013 to 2017. Amy was previously editor of curated content for FT Live and has more than ten years of experience in journalism, editorial production and live events.

Persona 7

Andrew Clark

Trustee

Andrew studied History at Cambridge, focusing on modern British and European history. Andrew is a partner with the international law firm of Allen & Overy. He is currently General Counsel of the firm and chairs its Risk Committee. He lived in Madrid for a couple of years as head of Allen & Overy’s Spanish offices. He is a specialist in dispute resolution and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a licensed advocate and a qualified mediator.

Persona 8

Brian J. Douglas

Trustee

With a Spanish mother and British father and parts of childhood spent in Rome and Paris, Brian is very much a European citizen. He has a Commerce degree from Edinburgh University, a Masters in Marketing Strategy from Greenwich University, PMD from IESE and GAMP from ESADE Business Schools and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has been in the Technology sector for over twenty-five years and based in Madrid for much of this time in Business Development and International Marketing roles at both multinational companies (Unisys, Nortel Networks and G&D) as well as his own start-ups.

Persona 9

Roger JA Golland, OBE

Trustee

Roger Golland served for 32 years in HM Diplomatic Service, including tours in Ankara, Budapest, Buenos Aires and Brussels and stints as a Director in London. In recent years he has delivered capacity-building programmes to government partners overseas. He was Chair of the campaigning charity Transform Drugs Policy Foundation from 2012 – 2017 and is a trustee of Release. Roger is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Statecraft and an active participant in other think-tanks.

Persona 10

José Ivars-López

Trustee - Head of Corporate Development & Growth

José Ivars (also known as Pepe) has over two decades of experience in leadership roles across different companies and industries. He is managing director of Euronet Payment Services and Ria Financial for UKI, one of the largest payment companies in the world. He specialises in building propositions that deliver tangible value to customers, employees, and society in general, and then scaling and taking that product or service globally. Pepe combines his role in the city with his passion for the exploration, adventure, and expeditions to some of the worlds’ more remote areas, and always with the commitment of responsible leadership and respect towards the environment. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. He has been member of the society since 2000, and previously served as a Trustee from 2009 until 2020.

Persona 11

Jimmy Burns Marañón, OBE

Trustee

Born in Madrid to a Spanish mother and British father, Jimmy Burns Marañon was the chairman of the BritishSpanish Society from March 2013 to November 2024, and an active member of the Society since the 1970s. Jimmy was also the Editor of the Society’s magazine La Revista from 2010 to 2013 and now serves as Executive Editor. As a journalist Jimmy worked for the Financial Times for over three decades (1979 – 2009), during which he was posted as a foreign correspondent in Lisbon, Madrid and Buenos Aires before working for the newspaper as a senior reporter in a number of fields including industrial relations, special investigations, politics, crime and security. Jimmy is also the author of several books and is an independent consultant on Spain and Latin America. Aside from the BritishSpanish Society, Jimmy is also the Co-Founder of Friends of Battersea Park; has served as a member of the Management Council of Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies (London School of Economics), is a Director of The Tablet Publishing Company, and former President of the Stonyhurst Association.

Persona 12

José Olivares Paret

Trustee

José was born and raised in Madrid. He holds a Computer Engineering degree from ICAI, a Marketing degree from ICADE, both within the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, a BSc in Business Information Technology from the University of Wales, and a PDG (Programa de Dirección General) from IESE Business School. He has more than 15-years’ experience in innovation, corporate venturing, consulting, and venture building, working for corporations such as Acciona, in Madrid, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Avon and Holland & Barrett in London. He lived in London between 2016 and 2022, and moved back to Spain with his family. José works with entrepreneurs and corporations building new business ventures, using the latest technologies and digital solutions, and connecting them with business angels and venture capital funds to accelerate their growth.

Persona 13

Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos

Trustee - Head of the Scholarships Programme

Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos teaches History and International Relations at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford and is a Visiting Professor at the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in Madrid. She is the first Andalusian woman to earn a PhD from Oxford. She has worked in the municipal administration in France, at the national government level in Spain and served as an advisor to the Foreign Office in Britain. She won the Santander-British Spanish Society scholarship in 2016 for her research on the origins of the British Council in Spain and joined the BSS Executive Council in 2018 to support the promotion of the scholarship programme and the alumni network.

Persona 14

Dr Mike Short CBE FREng FIET

Trustee

Dr Short has held senior positions in Electronics and Telecommunications for forty years. He is Chair of the UK Telecomms Innovation Network Advisory Board and former elected Chairman of the global GSM Association and UK Mobile Data Association, former President of the Institution of Engineering Technology and former Chief Scientific Adviser for The Department for International Trade. Mike holds Honorary Doctorates from Staffordshire, Brunel and Kingston Universities and was a Visiting Professor at numerous universities. He was honoured with a CBE by the Her Majesty the Queen in June 2012 for services to the Mobile industry.

Annual Reports for the British Spanish Society:

Annual Reports

 

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