Our team
The Brown Bear Foundation (FOP- Fundación Oso Pardo) relies on the contribution of a multidisciplinary team of collaborators and contracted personnel responsible for carrying out its conservation activities and initiatives. Some of these come from academic fields and are mostly part of the FOP board of trustees and scientific team, advising and guiding the basic lines of action.
Most of the team works directly in rural areas and in the natural environment where the bears live, carrying out surveillance, research and education tasks. The coordination of all these tasks is assumed by the managerial and technical teams that operate from the Santander central office.
Executive director
Guillermo Palomero
Naturalist
Project coordinator
Fernando Ballesteros. In memoriam
Fernando passed away on August 13, 2023. In recognition of his invaluable dedication to the brown bear conservation, and the mark he left on all of us.
Head of the Habitat Program
María Gómez
Forest Engineer. Polytechnic University of Madrid
Communication technician
Carolina Rueda
Journalist. Complutense University of Madrid
Project technician
María A. Párraga
Animal Sciences PhD. University of Padua (Italy)
Project technician LIFE Bears with a Future
Luis Fernández
Naturalist
Eastern Cantabrian Bear Patrol
Elsa Sánchez/Begoña Almeida
Western Cantabrian Bear Patrol
Alicia Madrid / Elías Suárez
Office Team
Marcel Hiriart
Accounting and labor management
Carlos González-Antón
Legal adviser and secretary of the board of trustees
Maribel Escalera
Secretary
Last update: 24 August 2023