Ana Maiques (born in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, Spain, in 1972) is a Spanish entrepreneur and

business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations g ...

. She is

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of neuroscience-based medical device company

Neuroelectrics Neuroelectrics is a Barcelona-based Spanish company which produces devices to stimulate and treat the brain. Founded in 2011, it is a spin-off of Starlab Neuroscience Research which was established in 2000. The company was founded by Ana Maiques ...

, based in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, which produces devices designed to stimulate and treat the brain. Ana Maiques was named as one of the Most Inspiring Fifty Women in Europe.

Education

Maiques studied economics at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

and has an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public university, public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (f ...

. She has also completed

IESE Business School IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. Founded in 1958 in Barcelona where its main campus is located,López, T. & Pampliega, J“La fundación del IESE (1956–1958)” Universidad de Navarra, Biblioteca ...

's advanced management program.

Business

Maiques began working in Barcelona for Belgian-owned company Starlab in 1999, where she worked with her husband Giulio Ruffini (they had met in Barcelona a couple of years before). In 2001, when Starlab declared bankruptcy, they took over the company's Barcelona-based research division with Manel Adell. Starlab went on to develop revolutionary technologies in the fields of space and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

. In 2014, Maiques won third prize in the European Woman Innovator of the Year awards, for her entrepreneurial vision in promoting Starlab as an innovative company of scientific excellence. Maiques founded Starlab spin-off

in Barcelona, Spain, in 2011, and established officers in

Boston, United States Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most po ...

in 2014. Focused on developing medical devices for the brain, Maiques describes Neuroelectrics as a "digital brain health company" that aims to treat

brain disease Central nervous system diseases, also known as central nervous system disorders, are a group of neurological disorders that affect the structure or function of the brain or spinal cord, which collectively form the central nervous system (CNS). Th ...

in a

non-invasive A medical procedure is defined as ''non-invasive'' when no break in the skin is created and there is no contact with the mucosa, or skin break, or internal body cavity beyond a natural or artificial body orifice. For example, deep palpation and pe ...

personalized Personalization (broadly known as customization) consists of tailoring a service or a product to accommodate specific individuals, sometimes tied to groups or segments of individuals. A wide variety of organizations use personalization to improv ...

way through the use of technology. The devices Neuroelectrics develops record

brain activity Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

and stimulate the brain by administering small currents, while brain models and

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

s enable treatments to be customized to the needs of individual patients. Its brain reading and electro-stimulation headgear has been used to measure brain fatigue in

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

pilots and may have applications in the treatment of

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

. Other areas of research include applications in

neurodegenerative A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

diseases such as

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

, and in

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

and depression.

Personal life

Ana Maiques is married to physicist Giulio Ruffini. She has four children, and spends her time between Barcelona and Boston.

Awards and recognition

* 2010: Nominated as one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Spain under 40 by the University of Navarre's IESE Business School * 2014: EU Prize for Women Innovators * 2014: International Women's Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) * 2015: Best Start-Up Health Award (for Neuroelectrics), Wired Health (UK) * 2015: One of Inspiring Fifty's most inspiring European female leaders in the technology sector * 2016: One of the Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America (for Neuroelectrics) in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Entrepreneur 360" list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maiques, Ana Living people 21st-century Spanish businesswomen Spanish chief executives People from Valencia 1972 births