Plenary Speakers
Alexandra Mora Cruz
Alexandra Mora-Cruz holds a Ph.D. in Business Management and a Master of Business Administration, with a focus on finance, from the Technological Institute of Costa Rica. She has served as a faculty member at the university since 2017. She currently coordinates the Ph.D. in Business Management and Master's in Business Research programs at the institution. Her research focuses on digital transformation in business and education, innovation in entrepreneurship, crowdfunding platforms, and value creation through technology. Dr. Mora-Cruz has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Technological Forecasting and Social Change, the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, and the European Journal of Innovation Management. Her professional experience encompasses roles in administration, finance, and human resources management, in addition to her academic pursuits. Ph.D. Mora-Cruz actively promotes integrating academic knowledge and practical applications to foster entrepreneurial ecosystems and organizational development.
Maria Mifsud
Maria Mifsud is an economist specialized in social economy. She holds a degree in Economics from the University of Valencia and a Master’s in International Economics and Development from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has also received specialized training in financing for social economy organizations.
She is a member of the worker cooperative Facto, where she works as an economic consultant, advising companies and collective entrepreneurship projects within the field of the social economy. Her professional background stands out for the development and implementation of financial and management strategies that enhance the viability and economic sustainability of such initiatives, taking into account their specific challenges, context, and constraints.She is also a lecturer at academic institutions such as TecnoCampus, where she teaches subjects related to economic management and financing in the field of the social economy.
Maria also coordinates Coop Maresme, a territorial initiative recognized for promoting and strengthening the social economy. This project fosters the creation and consolidation of collective entrepreneurship initiatives—especially those based on cooperative models—and supports the development of new enterprises with territorial impact, democratic governance, and participatory management.
Her solid professional career combines economic and financial consultancy for social economy enterprises, territorial development, and the promotion of collective entrepreneurship, with a recognized specialization in the cooperative model as an innovative and sustainable form of entrepreneurship.