ENAE graduates over 200 students from 20 nationalities on the hottest night of summer

The 2025/2026 class of ENAE Business School became one of the most international in the school's history during a ceremony held in Murcia with temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius and over 600 attendees. Ricardo Navarro, Senior Vice President of Generac Power Systems in the United States and an alumnus of the Executive MBA, served as godfather of a night in which the value of people and relationships took precedence over technology. Rain and extreme heat became involuntary protagonists of an evening that those present are already calling unforgettable.

The most extreme day of the heat wave sweeping through the Murcia Region, with thermometers reaching 44 degrees Celsius, did not prevent over 600 people from gathering for the 2025/2026 ENAE Business School graduation. A rain episode interrupted just before the ceremony and, far from diminishing it, ultimately became part of the memory of a night that many present already describe as one of the most attended in the school's history.

A class marked by diversity and international talent

The ceremony brought together over 200 graduates from 20 different nationalities, along with family members, faculty, authorities and business representatives. The composition of this class makes it one of the most international cohorts that ENAE has ever graduated, a fact that permeated much of the evening's speeches.

Antonio Ballester, president of the Fundación Universidad Empresa de la Región de Murcia (FUERM), the nonprofit organization to which ENAE belongs, opened the ceremony. Ballester focused his remarks on the tension between technology and people in the current context of artificial intelligence fervor.

"Technology can transform a company, but only people can decide what it should be transformed for".

The FUERM president also reviewed the impact of digitalization programs driven by ENAE over the past three years, which have trained approximately 4,000 professionals in the Region, and reminded attendees of the school's international recognitions, including QS's five-star rating and the seventh position in Spain for the Executive MBA in the QS Executive MBA Rankings. He closed his remarks by inviting graduates to join ENAE Alumni, which he described as the true legacy of their time at the school.

Ricardo Navarro, class godfather

The highlight of the evening was the speech by Ricardo Navarro, an alumnus of the 2003/2004 Executive MBA class and currently Senior Vice President and General Director of the Data Centers division of Generac Power Systems in the United States, a company present in over 150 countries. His trajectory began with 200 euros in his pocket and a job as a waiter in England, and took him to the forefront of one of the world's fastest-growing sectors.

Navarro structured his message around three stories (attitude, aptitude, and luck) and left a central idea that carried through the rest of the evening:

 

"Treat everyone the way you would like to be treated".

The godfather also introduced the concept of the zettabyte to illustrate the exponential growth of data, over 200 new zettabytes are expected in 2026 alone, and issued a direct challenge to the president of the Autonomous Community, Fernando López Miras, to convert Murcia into a new national hub for next-generation data centers.

Volunteering, sustainability and institutional recognition

Pedro López, head of Employment and Corporate Social Responsibility at ENAE, reviewed the year's balance in volunteering and sustainability. Among the highlighted initiatives was the V edition of the Árbol Solidario with ASTRAPACE, which raised over €2,500 for a rehabilitation crane, and collaborations with the Jesús Abandonado Foundation, the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Ronald McDonald Children's Foundation.

In this section, certificates were presented to volunteer students and special recognition to two organizations:

• ASTRAPACE, in commemoration of its 45th anniversary.
• ELIFAB, for its commitment to continuous training of its workforce through a custom-designed Professional MBA.

Mar Abad and "relational capital" as the most profitable asset

Mar Abad, president of ENAE Alumni, appealed to her own trajectory to highlight the value of the association: she entered ENAE as a scholarship recipient, became assistant to the director, and today runs her own company while also presiding over Alumni. She used the recent World Cup final as a metaphor for the invisible effort behind any achievement and championed what she called "relational capital" as the most profitable asset graduates will build throughout their careers.

"A degree opens doors. But people… they keep them open".

Abad invited attendees to understand Alumni not as an annual fee, but as a team to turn to throughout their entire professional trajectory.

The voice of the graduates: effort, family and personal transformation

The ceremony also gave prominence to the students themselves. Florlila Rodríguez, representing international students, thanked Spain and ENAE for their welcome and championed continuous improvement as the sum of small daily decisions.

Almudena García Duque, who pursued the Executive MBA while juggling work and three children, summed up her experience in three lessons: people, the family support behind every diploma, and personal transformation itself. She also proposed a new reading of the school's acronym: Effort, Never stop learning, Atreverse (Dare) and Equipo (Team).

ENAE PASS: Continuous training for alumni on demand

Before moving on to diploma distribution, the organization unveiled ENAE PASS, a new subscription program designed for graduates to continue learning without committing to a full master's degree. Through this platform, alumni will have access to recordings of classes from the school's various programs, with the same teaching quality as in-person training but with the flexibility of an on-demand format.

ENAE confirms that the project will be launched soon and will be available to all our graduates, including those receiving their diploma for the first time last night.

Diploma distribution and institutional closing

The ceremony proceeded to diploma distribution by program, with honors for the best academic records of each master's, in a procession that lasted much of the night despite the suffocating heat felt both inside and outside the venue.

The ceremony closed with remarks from Luis Alberto Marín, councilor of the Autonomous Community of the Región de Murcia, who highlighted ENAE's trajectory and renewed his personal affection for the institution before all present.

The evening ended with a dinner-cocktail where graduates, family members, and faculty prolonged the celebration with unrelenting heat. The extreme temperatures and the international composition of the class will remain as the two great symbols of a night that the 2025/2026 class will hardly forget.