Meet
Montserrat Peñarroya
How did all start
Her relationship with the net and the software that lives in it, comes from afar. She started programming when she was 13 (she had a ZX Spectrum 16K). Before the WWW existed, she was already working in international networks, sending messages similar to today's e-mails through these networks. And she knew what data encryption was before the https protocol was invented (she worked at the Treasury Department of Bank of Sabadell).
- She created her first website in 1995.
- She founded her first business in 1999.
- She taught her first classes at the UAB in 2002.
Working at Intercom
In February 1999 she started working at ISP Intercom Advanced Telematic Services as technical support assistant.
In October 1999, inside the Intercom Group, she founded her first company: Digital Commerce, S.A., a company property of SoloStocks.com. She was CEO of this company from its foundation until December 2004.
12 years later, SoloStocks is still the greatest market for wholesalers in Spain and is present in more than 10 countries. The image next to these lines corresponds to the party that was held in early 2010 on the occasion of 10 years since SoloStocks was founded.
In December 2004 she joined Noticias.com and acted as its CEO for 2 years, making this newspaper one of the first 2.0 newspapers and gathering over 100.000 subscribers.
After two years directing Noticias.com, and seven years working at Intercom Group, Montse decided to abandon the company (as an employee, not as a shareholder) and she joined in full the company that she had already founded in 2004 with two of his best friends, and ex-co-workers from Intercom.
ALT64
Together with Jaume Clotet and Iván de Muro, Montse founded Alt64 Digital, in 2004. Since its beginning, the company has been dedicated to the commercialization of tools to improve the productivity of online businesses, though they also offered Digital Marketing consulting services.
This is the company that imports the Eyetrackers (computers that work with the sight and allow performing usability analysis with empirical data) to Spain.
After two years of Alt64's foundation, she decided to split the consulting area from the area of products commercialization to avoid competing with the clients in this areas. At the same time, Montserrat founded Quadrant Alfa, S.L.
Quadrant Alfa, S.L.
Quadrant Alfa was founded using the customer base from Alt64's consulting department, and was created precisely to help the companies in creating their websites and performing Digital Marketing actions with a solid base. Its mission was also to help the internationalization of companies through Internet.
After two years of operation, Montse founded GEA Internet Project Consulting along with Sandra Calsina and segregated the Digital Marketing consulting services and the creation of website, to focus Quadrant Alfa on the investigation and the education., which is still doing today.
The lectures
in 2002, after finishing the Degree in Foreign Trade and International Marketing at UAB, this university invited Montse to give a lecture about International Digital Marketing to some of the students at the Graduate School.
From this moment, Montserrat started teaching regularly in other editions of the masters in marketing and distribution at UAB. At the same time, she started receiving invitations to teach in other subjects related to Digital Marketing in other universities and business schools.
In the attached photo, Montserrat is receiving the title of «best valued teacher» in the delivery of diplomas for the 2012-2013 edition of Marketig and Distribution masters at the UAB (it should be said that she was not the only teacher awarded this award).
Until last year, she was the Program Director of the Degree in Digital Entrepreneurship at La Salle and a professor of Digital Analytics and eCommerece in this degree.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization
The relationship between Montse and the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) or UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) as it is known in Spanish, is not new, in October 2012 Montserrat wrote the agenda for «Digital Marketing for Sustainable Tourism Destinations»For a master's degree taught by the UNWTO and the UOC. And in May 2014 he participated as a speaker at the World Congress of Snow and Mountain Tourism organized by this institution.
However, it was not until 2015 that Montserrat began to actively collaborate with this organization and became a "facilitator" of its face-to-face training programs.
He has participated in training missions in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Lithuania, Qatar, Dubai, Argentina, Mexico, Portugal and Georgia.
The photograph attached to these lines is the official image of the Tourism Digital Marketing course in which you can see the students (60 members of the different Zimbabwean tourism authorities), the Minister of Tourism of this country, the two "facilitators » of the program (Montserrat and Karin Elgin [from the Netherlands]), the course coordinator (Mouad Achhab) and the UNWTO representative (Albaro Moreno). Representatives of the tourist authorities of the Seychelles and the Mauritius Islands also attended as guest-participants.
Not everything is work ...
Thank you for wanting to know more about me.
I have three great hobbies: cooking, reading and music.
- About cooking, I write a cooking blog with lots of recipes: Kitchen House
- About reading, my favorite genre is Sci-Fi. I read the majority of the books published in Spain of this genre. You can read some of the books I've read in Library Thing or on the reviews part of this website.
- About music, I love New Age above the rest, though I like all kinds of music in general. I play the piano whenever I can, and I compose songs when I feel inspired. I can also sing: I am contralt at "Chamber Choir Father Vidal".
- I have a fourth hobby, which I can only do in weekends video games. I play video games since I was 9 and I've never stopped doing it. In my early years, I even coded some. For years I've been playing Age of Empires and all its variables, Civilization IV , I dedicated about 3 years to AION, 3 more to HayDay, SimCity, Fallout Shelter and others of the same type... although now I play Autochess, which is more relaxed and the games last less.
When he had free time (this hasn't happened in more than 20 years) he also painted in oils and had a workshop where, in addition to painting, he made ceramics. Now I have the oven, the lathe, the laminator, the easels, the paint boxes and everything else, stored in a warehouse, hoping that one day, again, I will have free time again. The last exhibition was carried out just before joining Intercom, in 1998.
Have I said that I am mother of three kids yet? I have a son named Jaume (32 years old and father of 2 [yes, this means I'm a grandmother]), a daughter named Mireia (31 years old) and a daughter named Georgina (25 years old). They are the best thing that has happened to me in life. Any mother/father will agree that there is no project or enterprise better than raising and helping your kids grow..
Anyway...
A big hug.
Montse Peñarroya