When Iñaki Urdangarin broke his silence after his sentence for involvement in the Nóos case had ended, he stated that he now wanted to devote himself “to helping.” In an interview granted to the newspaper La Vanguardia, the former husband of Infanta Cristina added that he saw his future as an attempt at personal and professional redemption: “I feel that time has slipped away from me, and now I want to make the most of it.”
Iñaki Urdangarin’s professional life can be summarized in four main stages. First, his career as an elite athlete at FC Barcelona and in the Spanish national handball team; then his move into business and institutional activity, as president of the Nóos Institute and an executive at Telefónica; after leaving prison, he worked at a law firm in Vitoria where he began his relationship with Ainhoa Armentia; and finally, his recent professional reinvention in the field of coaching and consulting.
Focused on building a new opportunity to break with the more controversial parts of his past, Iñaki Urdangarin has created a new version of himself that he has poured into Bevolutive. This coaching company based in Barcelona is run by him together with three partners who have also become his most faithful allies and whom he regards as the best experts in the country.
Núria Sala, strategic director and conscious marketing consultant, and his office wife; Iñaki Saltor, advisor, executive coach and investor; and Ferran Martínez, Olympic basketball player and now high-performance mentor. The three of them form together with the former Duke of Palma the heart of this project focused on leadership, sport and training, and whose motto very aptly sums up Iñaki Urdangarin’s life path: “From Olympus to Hell”.
The Intense Activity of Bevolutive
With a brand-new office in one of the best areas of Barcelona, it seems that the ex-brother-in-law of the kings Felipe and Letizia is thriving. This is how Silvia Taulés reports in the Vanitatis magazine, assuring that the coaching and consulting firm already has contracts with public and private companies and is developing an “enormous activity”. They have also given a presentation at the exclusive Circulo Ecuestre of the city on life transitions.
Iñaki Urdangarin’s memoir.
Another of his most relevant steps has been the presentation of his Fortaleza method at the headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee. This initiative aims to provide tools to families and young people with the objective of combating the abandonment of sports. As he noted during the event, Iñaki Urdangarin said that true sporting success does not consist solely in developing talents, but in “helping people grow, enjoy their path and prevent that talent from being lost due to lack of resources.”
Sports and corporate programs, individual coaching, or lectures are the main areas of specialization of Iñaki Urdangarin’s company, which has shifted from a low-profile image to increasing media exposure. Beyond personally advising his son Pablo in his promising career on the courts, it is through Bevolutive that he wants to consolidate his professional prestige. And he wants to do it “not as a business idea, but as a life-changing shake-up”.
From His Memoirs to a New Book
One of the key points of Iñaki Urdangarin’s reinvention has been the release of his memoirs, titled All That Has Been Lived: Triumphs, Defeats, and Learnings. Despite the initial expectations of possible reproaches to the Royal Family, the book functioned more as a manual of resilience and self-help. Structured in five chapters, it intimately traces his ascent, fall and subsequent reconstruction.
Now, and through his company and in collaboration with the City Council of Manresa, the former athlete is already preparing the launch of another book in which he will not be the protagonist. The first major project of Bevolutive’s publishing division will be the autobiography of Thierno Diallo, a Spanish gymnast of Guinean origin, who competed in the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
