Bingen Zupiria (born 1961) is a Spanish politician affiliated with the Basque National Party. As of 28 November 2016, he serves as Minister of Culture and Language Policy in the

Basque Government The Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritza, es, Gobierno Vasco) is the governing body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. The head of the Basque government is known as the ''Lehendakari''. The Lehendakari is appointed by the Basque P ...

. Between 2016 and 2020, he served in this position in the Second Urkullu Government led by

Iñigo Urkullu Íñigo Urkullu Renteria (born 18 September 1961) is a Spanish politician, and the Lehendakari (President) of the Basque Government since 2012. As the President of the Basque Government, he headed the First, Second and Third Urkullu Governmen ...

and , he serves in this position in the Third Urkullu Government. He also serves as government spokesperson.

Early life and education

He was born in Hernani in 1961, and attended Urumea

Ikastola An (, plural ) is a type of primary and secondary school in the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and (to a much lesser extent) the French Basque Country (see Basque Country) in which pupils are taught either entirely or predominantly in the ...

. He holds a degree in Philosophy and Letters from the

University of Deusto The University of Deusto ( es, Universidad de Deusto; eu, Deustuko Unibertsitatea) is a Spanish private university owned by the Society of Jesus, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, and the Deusto Business School branch in Madrid. The Un ...

, specialising in Basque Philology. He graduated with honours in 1984. In 2002, he earned a

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 ...

on Management of

Worker Cooperatives A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

Mondragon University Mondragon University ( eu, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, MU) is a non-profit cooperative private university in the Basque Country, officially established and recognised in 1997. It is part of Mondragon Corporation. Its main campus is in Mondragó ...

. He was a member of the

music duo A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

"Miren eta Bingen", along with Miren Etxaniz. The duo played traditional Basque music, and Zupiria used to play the pandero. The duo was active for four years, and they released an album in 1982.

Career

In 1983, he started a journalist career at EITB, the public broadcasting service of the Basque Country. He worked as editor and presenter in the news division of ETB, the public television. He used to present ''Gaur Egun'' and ''Teleberri'', the news programmes of ETB1 and ETB2, respectively. He later worked as editor in chief of ETB's news division. From 1989 to 1999 he was the Press Secretary of the Basque Government and Communications Advisor to the

Lehendakari The President of the Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria, es, presidente del Gobierno Vasco), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari ( eu, lehendakari, es, lendakari), is the head of government of the Basq ...

(President of the Basque Government), working under the presidency of Jose Antonio Ardanza. In 1999 he returned to EITB as director of ETB, where he remained until 2009, upon being sacked by the new administration formed after the 2009 Basque regional election. He briefly served as acting Director-General of EITB from 2008 to 2009, succeeding Andoni Ortuzar. From 2005 to 2007 he was the director of a joint master's degree by EITB and the University of Deusto on Audiovisual, Corporate and Institutional Communication. He was a visiting professor at the University of Mondragon for two years, from 2007 to 2009, teaching the course Quality to last year students of Audiovisual Communication degree. He has also taught in master's degrees on Corporate Communication and Management of Innovation and Knowledge by the

University of the Basque Country The University of the Basque Country ( eu, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, ''EHU''; es, Universidad del País Vasco, ''UPV''; UPV/EHU) is a Spanish public university of the Basque Autonomous Community. Heir of the University of Bilbao, initiall ...

. During the summer of 2009 he worked as script supervisor for the Basque

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...

''Mugaldekoak''. After leaving his post at EITB he was the director of G-Quest from November 2009, a

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

-based company working on social research, strategic marketing and communication. He was also a contributor for the newspaper ''Deia'' and the radio station

Cadena Ser La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is Spain's premier radio network in terms of both seniority (it was created in 1924) and audience share (it had a regular listenership in 2018 of 4,139,000). The acronym SER stands for ''Sociedad Española de Radi ...

. In 2012, he became the director of the newspaper ''Deia''. In 2016 Lehendakari

named Zupiria Minister of Culture and Language Policy of the

. After the 2020 Basque regional election Urkullu formed his third government, where Zupiria remained as Minister of Culture and Language Policy and assumed the office of government spokesperson.

Personal life

He currently lives in Bilbao. He is married to Aintzane Bolinaga, a news editor at EITB. The couple has two sons and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zupiria, Bingen Living people 1961 births Basque Nationalist Party politicians People from Hernani Government ministers of the Basque Country (autonomous community) University of Deusto alumni Basque journalists Basque musicians Spanish television presenters Spanish broadcasters Academic staff of the University of Deusto Academic staff of the University of the Basque Country Mondragon Corporation