Trailblazer 02: Alejandro Agag Formula E Pioneer

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Alejandro Agag is an entrepreneur and a bold visionary whose career trajectory has taken him from politics in his native Spain to becoming the Founder and CEO of the electric street racing series, Formula E. His self-proclaimed addiction to disrupting the motor-sport industry has seen him tear up the motor-sport rulebook in the name of equality and the environment.

Born in Madrid in 1970, Alejandro enjoyed an international upbringing in Madrid, Paris, and New York then studied Economics and Business at the Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros. Having been actively involved in politics while at University, Alejandro quickly moved up the ranks of the international relations department due to his knowledge of languages. He was elected International Secretary of NNGG at their congress in 1994 and in 1999 won a seat in the European Parliament, becoming the youngest Spanish person to ever do so. In the same year Alejandro graduated, he was offered the position of Deputy Secretary General of the European People's Party. In 1996 the Center-right won the elections in Spain, and Alejandro was offered the position of designated aid to the President of the Government, José María Aznar. At only 28, Alejandro was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Partido Popular. In 2000, he led the Parliaments report on antitrust policy, and was active in redrafting the present antitrust rules.

However, in 2001 Alejandro decided to leave the world of politics in order to further a career in business and sport. Together with his business partner Flavio Briatore, he purchased the F1 TV rights in Spain. A few years later, Alejandro purchased the Campos Racing GP2 Team and revamped it into the highly successful Barwa Addax Team. Alejandro quickly realised that many sponsors were withdrawing from Formula 1 because it was not a green sport and made the radical decision to create a cleaner version. He, together with business partner Enrique Bañuelos, began Formula E Holdings, winning the tender to promote the new FIA Formula E Championship. Formula E Holdings went on to set up an electric car racing series in ten different cities around the world.

Through Formula-E, Alejandro became even more fervent about climate action and was convinced he could do more with motor-sport’s colossal viewership to promote change. He is now fearlessly taking sport to distant and perilous places like the Arctic, rainforests, deserts, and oceans in order to shine a spotlight on the challenges we face with the climate crisis. This bold venture is an FIA-sanctioned international off-road racing series that uses spec electric SUVs to race in the most remote parts of the world.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Alejandro is also on a mission to bring equality to motor-sport. He got the idea of mixed teams from the mixed doubles format in tennis, in which the women and the men on the team are equally important to a victory and would be standing together in triumph on the podium. He acknowledges he can only play the role he has within his power and so he is determined to make a difference where he can – in the sport he is most passionate about.

Alejandro has been named as one of the 10 "movers and shakers" of the Spanish economy by the Financial Times, Spanish "Businessman of the Year" by GQ Magazine, and described as a "political hopeful, economist, banker and indefatigable dealmaker" with a “priceless” rolodex due to his extensive range of political and business contacts all over the world.

Useful links

https://www.fiaformulae.com/

https://www.extreme-e.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Agag

Our Favourite Quotes:

"You have to take criticism as a motivation, the bigger the criticism the bigger the motivation to prove them wrong.”

"I think every company, every industry, and every person needs to become a pragmatic environmentalist."

"We are choking in the cities. So we need electric cars to basically clean the air inside the cities. And that was really the objective of Formula E to improve the technology to change the perception of people about electric cars. And we are succeeding in that. The technology is improving massively. We have the Generation Three coming which is going to be an incredible leap in terms of performance of these Electric Formula cars."

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