There is a question that management education tends to avoid: what happens to leadership when the person in front of you does not fit the standard mold? Ilunion answered it. Not with a theory — with a business.
As part of our Leadership Talk series our students visited Ilunion headquarters and two voices left a lasting mark on them: Ignacio Vela Antolín, Head of Ethics, Sustainability and Alliances at Ilunion, and Javier García Pajares, Brand Ambassador at Ilunion. Together, they offered something rare in a management classroom: a living demonstration that inclusion, profitability and purpose are not in tension. They are the same thing.
Ignacio Vela Antolín: Inclusion as a Business Foundation
Ignacio Vela Antolín opened the session with a provocation. Ilunion, he explained, was not born out of corporate social responsibility. It was born because, nearly ninety years ago, people with visual impairments walked into a government office and made a simple request: they did not want charity. They wanted the right to work.
That founding decision — to treat work as dignity, not as an accommodation — became the architecture of everything Ilunion has built since. Today, the group operates across six business lines: services, healthcare, tourism, retail, consultancy, and the circular economy. Over 45,000 people are employed. Its headquarters in Madrid — the largest and most accessible working building for people with disabilities in Europe — is home to 1,200 professionals, 75% of whom have a disability. Its inclusive structure is deliberate: 51% women, 27% over the age of 55, 16% from vulnerable groups.
And the business works. In the last decade alone, Ilunion has doubled its gross sales.
But Ignacio was not there to share metrics. He was there to shift a mindset.
“We still have a long way to go before we reach truly humanistic and ethical leadership, with real transparency in society.”
— Ignacio Vela Antolín · Head of Ethics, Sustainability and Alliances · Ilunion
His advice to future leaders was equally grounded: value talent, not a person’s characteristics. Read widely, from different sources. Develop the critical capacity to identify which ones are telling you what you would rather not hear. And every day, show curiosity — especially when facing what you do not yet understand, and especially when a problem is placed in front of you.
It is, in essence, a call for leaders who are intellectually humble, socially conscious, and professionally rigorous. Ignacio closed his reflection with a thought that reframed the entire conversation: all of us, at some point in our lives, will face difficulty. That is precisely why inclusive spaces are not a niche solution. They are a universal necessity.
Javier García Pajares: What a Life Teaches About Leadership
Statistics explain scale. Stories explain impact.
Javier García Pajares was born without disabilities. At ten, he began losing his hearing. At fifteen, his vision deteriorated so severely that reading a single paragraph took more than fifteen minutes. Shortly after, he lost his sight entirely. No diagnosis. No roadmap. School interrupted. His family’s life transformed overnight.
Everything changed when his father brought him to ONCE. With the support of psychologists, Javier began to rebuild his confidence. A single recommendation altered his trajectory: start climbing. In those mountain trips, he began to imagine a different future — one where he studied again, worked, and built a family. He learned Braille, returned to school, and graduated with honours. He later completed an Erasmus exchange in London, reading Law and Business Administration.
The labour market, however, remained closed. Employers showed initial interest — until the moment Javier explained, calmly and clearly, that he would need an interpreter for the phone interview they proposed in ten minutes. The answer was always the same: no.
Until Ilunion.
During his interview with the CEO, Javier shared two dreams: to work independently and to climb the world’s highest mountains. The answer was honest: “I can help you — but only with one.” He has been with Ilunion’s legal department for over five years. His colleagues learned to communicate with him, including sign language on the hand. He works with Braille displays connected to his phone and computer.
And the mountains? He climbed them anyway. Seven Alpine peaks in six days. Mount Elbrus. Kilimanjaro.
“Climbing mountains is nothing compared to what I have at home.”
— Javier García Pajares · Brand Ambassador · Ilunion
Today, Javier is also the father of two young children. He is not a symbol. He is a professional, a father, and an athlete — who happens to work in an organisation that chose to see him as exactly that.
What This Means for Management Education
At Advantere, we bring professionals into our classrooms not to illustrate concepts from a textbook, but to confront our students with the real complexity of leading in today’s world.
Ignacio and Javier did not come to inspire. They came to challenge. To ask, implicitly, whether the leaders our students aspire to become will have the courage to value talent over convenience, to build organisations that work for everyone, and to measure success by something broader than margin.
That is the leadership Advantere believes in: ethical, inclusive, and oriented toward the common good.
Inclusion is not a distant aspiration.
It is already happening — with everyone included.