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On June 30, 2008, students of IE Business School will have another great opportunity in the Venture Lab Speaker Series to share the experience and opinions about what innovation means for one of the most innovative Spanish entrepreneurs: DAVID DEL VAL. David is a pioneer in compression technology for video and founder of V-Xtreme, a company acquired by Microsoft two years after its creation. Del Val owns more than 16 international patents in US, Europe and Japan. Holder of a telco engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Del Val launched his career in 1994 with the first broadcasting of video by Internet in Spain, using technology preceding the current ADSL (conventional telephone line) system.

During the summer of 1994 he joined Stanford University for a master in computer science. He was totally â??infectedâ? by silicon valley´s innovation and entrepreneurial culture and ended up founding VXtreme Inc., a company with Cisco, Softbank and Informix among its investors and CNN as its key client. There are currently millions of users of Del Val´s technology in more than 29 languages.

After V-Xtreme was acquired by Microsoft, he spent some years there running the R&D department but finally Del Val decided to come back to Spain and start up, once again, a new venture, TechFoundries. TechFoundries is â??five companies in oneâ? with business lines in interactive TV, video on demand, domestic technology, etcâ?¦ media, technology and telecommunications. This was in 2000.

And recently a new challenge knocked at his door� One of the most innovative companies in the world persuaded him to head its innovation and technology department: Telefónica. But where does an entrepreneur fit in a big company like this?

â??Now I am managing one of the largest innovation budgets in the worldâ?¦ it is a huge entrepreneurial challengeâ?¦ but this time I have resources from the beginningâ?

 

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