Fernando Riano

Fernando joined Barclays’ human resource department in January 2006 and was appointed Head of Diversity and Inclusion in December 2009. Prior to that, he had been working as a Lawyer, Consultant, and Collaborator in the University of Navarra.

He was educated at the Universidad de Navarra/IESE, earned a Law degree, and has a Masters in Philosophy. He also obtained an MBA from the UPCO/ ICADE Business School.

Fernando would probably be a judge today, were it not the fact that people with severe visual disabilities like his are excluded from taking the government exams needed to have a career in the courts.  He was deemed not “functionally compatible” for the position.

At the age of 33, from Haro (La Rioja) this was not the only obstacle he had to surmount. He always studied at ordinary learning centres, and never attempted to hide his disability. “What I did do was to talk about the difficulties I had, because we all know that the things people don’t talk about don’t exist”. Thanks to this, I sometimes achieved a few steps forward, that later benefited others, like the time when I asked for my university class notes in a Word document so that I could listen to them using a digital reading program. And ever since then, all students were provided with the notes in this format,” he explains.

Fernando graduated with excellent grades and degrees in both Law and Philosophy from the University of Navarra, and received the maximum grade of 10 on his final MBA project from the University of Madrid.

Fernando, in addition to being proud of working for Barclays, has been a member of the national tandem cycling team, in his debut in the duathlon, proclaimed with his guide and friend Javier, both duathlon Champions of Spain, will participate with the Spanish team in the Triathlon World Cup.