During the symposium, participants will discuss the need for innovative strategies of corporate governance and human resource management that implement a more humanist approach and place people at the centre of production processes to encourage not only their professional, but also their personal development. The event was organized by the UIC Department of Management by Missions and Corporate Governance in collaboration with the San Telmo International Institute and is sponsored by the Jiménez Maña Corporation.

According to Dr. Carlos Rey, an expert in strategic management and change management and the head of the department, the symposium has two objectives. “The first is to remind the academic and business worlds that managing companies with a humanist philosophy is possible; it isn't just a utopia", he said. "The second is to use examples and case studies to show how different companies carry out this goal”.

At the symposium, Dr. Rey will discuss the real prospect of creating more human companies together with Manuel Jiménez-Maña, the managing director of the Jiménez Maña Corporation, one of the first companies in Andalusia to introduce the new model of management by missions and the department's leading sponsor.

The talk will be followed by a discussion of the results achieved with new models of corporate governance and human resource management in different organizations. Executives, business people and academics such as Francisco Hevia, the director of Social Responsibility and Foundation at the Siro Group; Manuel Romera, an advisor to Invercaixa, Nuevo Microbank and Servihabitat; Pedro Heras, a Human Resources and Organization business partner with Repsol Portugal; and Ángel Alloza, the CEO of Corporate Excellence, will share their organizations' experiences.

In addition, academics and researchers will present the results of studies and analysis of crucial aspects of human resource management, such as leadership, communication, innovation and values.

The first International Symposium "Companies with a Human Face" is organized by the UIC Department of Management by Missions, which was created in April 2012. Its main sponsor is the Jiménez Maña Corporation, an automotive spare parts supplier with over 60 years of experience in Andalusia. Led by Dr. Carlos Rey and Dr. Miquel Bastons, the associate director and Dean of the UIC Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, the department also has the support and participation of five other companies interested in the management by missions model: Semillas Fitó (agricultural industry); Kern Pharma (pharmaceutical industry); Aitex (textile industry); JJC Contratistas Generales (construction industry); and Industrial Química del Nalón (chemical industry).