Yesterday, the Board of Trustees of the Elhuyar Foundation unanimously appointed Maddi Etxebarria Bilbao as Elhuyar's general coordinator. Etxebarria will take over from Jon Abril Olaetxea, who has decided to leave his post after suffering a mishap.

Maddi Etxebarria Bilbao, born in Gernika in 1971, has a degree in Communication Sciences from the University of the Basque Country. She has worked in Elhuyar since 1999, in recent years as a consultant in the Basque field and previously in coordination work. He has also been a member of the management.

He has represented Elhuyar in several organizations related to cultural activity in Basque, such as Soziolinguistika Klusterra and Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua, of whose direction he has been part. She has also been a teacher in the UPV/EHU’s own degree Euskararen jabekuntza, kudeaketa hizkuntza-praktikak XXI. mendean: hizkuntzen kudeaketa globalean (The empowerment of the Basque language, management and linguistic practices in the 21st century: language management in the global era) and in the postgraduate Euskara eta digitalitatea (Basque language and digitality) organized by the UEU. He has also given several talks and has several publications on topics related to the incorporation of the Basque language into the work environment. In addition, he has extensive experience and training in leadership and team strategy.

Need to be attentive to the challenges of Basque society

With the appointment of Maddi Etxebarria Bilbao, Elhuyar wishes to continue responding to the challenges facing Basque society in order to contribute to building, from the Basque Country, a more critical, active and egalitarian society. It wants to focus on Basque, extend its presence to more fields and sectors and share the experience of Basque with other communities of minorized languages. It will also continue to work to place the Basque language in a prominent position in the era of artificial intelligence, always promoting a responsible use of this technology.

Elhuyar wants to continue being a reference in the dissemination of scientific culture in Basque, as well as in collaboration with agents of the scientific field and in the creation of bridges between science and society.

To carry out all this, Elhuyar will follow its usual line of work: it will focus on people and the community and collaborate with various agents, without losing sight of social transformation. The entity is firmly convinced that, in the face of the current challenges of society, a critical and egalitarian perspective is increasingly necessary.