Juan Ignacio Vidarte
Director General Manager of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Director General Manager of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, was born in Bilbao on February 20, 1956. He is married and has two daughters.

graduate high school in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Deusto in Bilbao in 1978, he took postgraduate courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA.

Director of high school of programs of study Territoriales de Bizkaia between 1986 and 1988, he was appointed Director General of Territorial Action of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia in 1988, position which he occupied until 1989. That year he was appointed Director General of Fiscal and Financial Policy of the same institution.

In 1992 he was appointed Director of the Consortium of the project Guggenheim Bilbao, manager of the construction and installation of the Museum in Bilbao. On December 18, 1996, he was appointed Director General Manager of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by the board of trustees of its Foundation, position . Since October 2008, he has held the position of Director General Manager for Global Strategy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Under its management, the Museum has received numerous prizes and awards since its opening in October 1997, including the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 1999; the European Museum of the Year 2000 awarded by the European Museum Forum; the Silver Q according to model EFQM for excellence at management in 2004; the Plaque for Merit in Tourism 2005; or Vasco Universal 2007.

He has published numerous articles and given lectures, among other places, at the Universities of Deusto, Salamanca, Valencia, Coruña, UNED, Menéndez Pelayo University and Harvard, on the functioning of the Museum, its economic impact and the so-called "Guggenheim effect", including discussion paper The Bilbao Effect in the British House of Commons. He has also participated in national and international forums such as seminar Brussels Capital of Europe, organized by the European Commission with the participation of prominent personalities such as Romano Prodi, Umberto Eco or Rem Koolhaas; or The Meetings for the Europe of Culture, a forum created at the initiative of the President of the French Republic in May 2005, which brought together artists, intellectuals and cultural professionals from all member states of the European Union; since September 2008 he regularly participates in the Global Creative Leadership Summit, held annually in New York.