Sebastián Espinoza
Santiago, Chile
Sebastián Espinoza, from Santiago, Chile, is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a master’s degree in public policy at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. At Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and electrical engineering and a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Sebastián aspires to achieve inclusive and sustainable energy and economic development in Chile and Latin America. He taught Introduction to Economic Analysis at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, was a visiting researcher at the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, and interned for the Government of Chile’s Ministry of the Presidency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is the chief strategy officer at Valhalla in Santiago, a renewable energy venture. He co-founded a UK-Chile university consortium to advance research on Disaster Management and Resilience in Electric Power Systems. The organization, which seeks to improve developing countries preparedness and response to natural disasters, was awarded the UK Newton Prize in 2018. After the 2010 earthquake and tsunami in Chile, Sebastián co-founded Opets, a youth-led nonprofit organization that promotes the development of vulnerable communities while fostering social awareness and action among volunteers.