We are a multidisciplinary group of people who want to contribute to the improvement of democracy in our country. We specialize in information analysis and journalism, software development and design, communications, institutional relations and business development.

Team

David Cabo

Co-Director

MSc in Software Engineering and BA in Psychology, David founded Civio in 2012, and currently serves as Executive Director and lead developer. For 12 years he worked as a consultant, developer, and software architect for companies such as British Telecom, HM Revenues and Customs, Accenture, Ericsson and BBVA Global Markets. He is an expert in open data, public data analysis and budget data, among other fields.

David also lectures on the post-graduate courses offered by Spain's leading media (El Mundo and El Pais), as well as in numerous workshops and conferences related to civic technology and data journalism. Before founding Civio, David co-organized the largest open data hackathon in Spain, Desafio Abredatos, launched the pro-transparency initiative #adoptaundiputado and collaborated with investigative journalists on the extraction and analysis of public data (Looting the Seas, ICIJ). He has also worked with Access Info Europe and mySociety in the development of the European web portal AsktheEU.org.

Eva Belmonte

Co-Director

Graduate of Journalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She arrived to Civio after eight years in the newsroom of El Mundo in Barcelona (2004-2012). Eva Belmonte designs, leads, and monitors all of Civio's journalistic investigations.

An expert in the analysis and treatment of public information, specially public policies and procurement, she is the author of El BOE nuestro de cada dia, where she synthesises, on a daily basis, the Spanish Official State Gazette, informing citizens about how the decisions made therein affect them; she has published the book Españopoly (Ariel, 2015) in which she describes and documents how Spain's power structures function. Based on Civio's investigations, she designs and implements the foundation's advocacy on lobbying, access to information and accountability. She is also Professor of Investigative Journalism and Data on various official Masters. She loves Westerns.

Ángela Bernardo

Deputy director

Ángela holds a degree in Biotechnology from the University of León, a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry from the Pompeu Fabra University and an expert in Communication Departments from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is PhD in Biolaw at the University of the Basque Country.

She joined Civio in 2018 as a reporter for health and public policies, after five years as a science writer at Hipertextual and after collaborating with other media such as JotDown, ileon.com or Diario de León. Before working exclusively in science journalism, she worked in companies such as TFS Trial Form Support, Harlan Laboratories and collaborated as a freelance writer in the communication departments of the Spanish Association of Biocompanies (ASEBIO), the Biocores project (Centre for Genomic Regulation) and the publishing firm Permanyer Publications. She is the author of the book Acoso. #MeToo en la ciencia española (Next Door Publishers, 2021). Ángela is also a board member of the Spanish Association of Science Communication (AEC2). She served as president of the Spanish Federation of Biotechnologists (2010-2012) and board member of the Spanish Society of Biotechnology (2014-2018). She also teaches classes related to science communication and journalism.

Javier de Vega

Communications

Holding a degree in Journalism from the University San Pablo CEU, Master in International Relations and specialized in Communications, Javier is responsible for the development and implementation of the organization's communications strategy. He has worked as a corporate communications technician for the Zed Group and as a journalist at the Spanish Economic and Trade Office in Düsseldorf (Germany), Turespaña and the State Society for Innovation Management and Tourism Technologies. His career in journalism began at the Diario de León in 2001.

María is a journalist specialized in investigation, data and visualization with a Masters from El Mundo newspaper and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. She previously worked in communications for companies such as Ferrovial Servicios - Internacional, and Bosch, as well as completing an internship at the Office of International relations at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She graduated from Journalism from the same university, with an Erasmus grant for Lancashire Central University (Preston, UK) and has an international scholarship at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).

Olalla Tuñas

Engagement and Participation

Olalla, before joining Civio, was responsible for participation and community engagement at Hostwriter, an international network of journalists. Previously she worked as editor at Ruptly, international video agency based in Berlin. In Spain, she has published in local media such as El Correo Gallego and the digital Galiciaé. She holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela and an Erasmus Mundus Master in Journalism and Intercultural Communication from the Universities of Aarhus, Denmark and Hamburg, Germany.

Carmen Torrecillas

Web Development & Data Visualization

Graduate of architecture from the Universidad de Granada and web developer from Adalab’s integral frontend program. Carmen is in charge of frontend development, data visualizations and graphic design for Civio’s projects. Before she co-founded Ooopart, a data visualization, parametric design and digital manufacturing studio. She has made several collaborations in these fields, among others with the Global Change Observatory of Sierra Nevada.

Ana Villota

Administration and Operations Manager

Ana is responsible for the financial and administrative management of Civio. She makes our financial controlling comprehensive, timely and transparent. Ana has more than ten years of experience in financial departments of non-profit associations. Prior to joining Civio, she was responsible for project management at the Association Acción Familiar. Before that, she worked in third sector entities such as RAIS Foundation (for the social inclusion of disadvantaged collectives) and ACCEM (to provide assistance and shelter to refugees, immigrants and other vulnerable groups). In the private sector, Ana has worked in companies such as Valeo and ExxonMobil, in the accounting, administrative, financial and legal fields.

Ana has a degree in Law from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) and a Masters in Taxation from the Centro de Estudios Europeos Garrigues.

Adrián Maqueda

Web Development & Data Visualization

Adrián is a data visualization specialist, progressing every day as web developer. He joined Civio from Newtral. He has a degree in journalism specialized in multimedia from Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, and a master’s degree in investigative journalism, data and visualization from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Escuela de Unidad Editorial. In his personal web you can find examples of his work.

Ter García

Periodista

Ter is a journalist with 15 years of experience and specialized in exposing human rights violations, abuses of authority, business networks and reporting on judicial cases on corruption and urban planning. Before joining Civio in 2023, she was a founder and member of the editorial collective of El Salto, where she coordinated Human Rights and Justice. And prior to that of Diagonal. She has freelance with La Marea and Pikara Magazine, among other media, and holds a degree in Journalism from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid.

Collaborators

Eduardo Sebastián

Collaborator on web development and infrastructure*

Eduardo is a back-end developer and collaborates on the architecture of Civio’s projects. Throughout his career he has worked in roles such as programmer, software architect, technical leader and consultant at companies such as Indra, Geabone (co-founder), Phidelium (partner), Tagloo and Altiora. Eduardo has been a visiting lecturer at the Universitat Politècnica de València and research assistant at the Universitat Jaume I.

Marcos García Rey

Collaborator on España en llamas

Marcos is an investigative journalist for El Confidencial and a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). At Civio, he collaborated on journalistic investigations for the project Spain in flames. He coordinated Unidad Editorial and the Rey Juan Carlos University’s Master’s Degree in Investigative, Data and Visualization Journalism. Since 2000 he has been working with the media and in journalism and academic research projects. He is author of several books, such as Vidas rotas (2010) or El 11-M in the Arab press (2004).

Hugo Garrido

Collaborator on España en llamas

Hugo is a journalist at El Mundo Data, the data unit of the newspaper El Mundo. A former intern at Civio, Hugo is an indispensable collaborator on España en llamas and, in addition to data journalism, has a lot of experience writing… code. A technical engineer in computer systems who graduated from the University of Alicante, his true passion is storytelling. He delivers specialized training on the Master’s program in Research, Data and Visualization Journalism by Editorial Unit and the Rey Juan Carlos University and himself studied Journalism at Carlos III University in Madrid. Swayed by the benefits of transparency and the reuse of data, his focus is on the use of technology to develop applications that allow these to be structured and generate knowledge.

Juan Elosua

Development of España en llamas and El indultómetro

Juan is a developer of news apps at NPR, the US public radio, in Washington DC. He was formerly a Knight-Mozilla fellow at La Nación Data, in Argentina. A telecommunications engineer by trade, he has worked for years as a freelance developer with expertise in data analysis and visualization. He has collaborated with Civio on the projects España en llamas and El Indultómetro and formed the autonomous part on the project ¿Dónde van mis impuestos?. He has participated in several openData initiatives in his dedication to fostering a new form of government, one which is more transparent, audited by the people.

Iurismática

Advisory Services for Laws on New Technologies

Iurismática is a law firm specialized in New Technologies laws. It works to overcome the challenges posed by technology and the internet - without overlooking the social side, thus contributing the knowledge accumulated by its members for the benefit of society in general. The firm collaborates with Civio by lending its experience to advise the team on legal issues - intellectual property, privacy, protection and the reuse of data… - linked to our projects.

Trustees

Jacobo Elosua

Founding Trustee and President of Civio

The entrepreneur behind projects with a marked social angle such as Iris AI and Civio. After starting his working life at UBS Investment Bank where he became Executive Director, Jacobo returned to Spain in 2005 and has been involved in a large number of projects related to digital technology and citizen activism. Prior to co-founding Civio, in his civic role he participated in Citizens’ Teams, Pro Bono Publico, Open Data of Spain, Cambiemos la Ley Electoral and Voota - an association that developed an innovative open platform to allow citizens to digitally connect with candidates and elected officials.

Jacobo has three degrees, in International Business Administration by ICADE (E-4), and in Economics and Law by UNED. In 2015 he was selected and received a scholarship to attend the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University, at NASA Ames. Jacobo was born in Vigo in 1974 and apart from his native Spain, he has lived in the US, UK, Ireland and Germany.

David Cabo

Founding Trustee and Executive Director

BS in Computer Science and BA in Psychology, David founded Civio in 2012, and currently serves as Executive Director and lead developer. For 12 years he worked as a consultant, developer, and software architect for companies such as British Telecom, HM Revenues and Customs, Accenture, Ericsson and BBVA Global Markets. He is an expert in open data, public data analysis and budget data, among other fields.

David also lectures on the post-graduate courses offered by Spain’s leading media (El Mundo and El Pais), as well as in numerous workshops and conferences related to civic technology and data journalism. Before founding Civio, David co-organized the largest open data hackathon in Spain, Desafio Abredatos, launched the pro-transparency initiative #adoptaundiputado and collaborated with investigative journalists on the extraction and analysis of public data (Looting the Seas, ICIJ). He has also worked with Access Info Europe and mySociety in the development of the European web portal AsktheEU.org.

Rodrigo Tena

Boardmember

A notary of Madrid by exam, Rodrigo has served as an associate professor of Civil Law at the University of Zaragoza, Visiting Lecturer of Civil Law at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and associate professor of Documentary Law at the Juan Carlos I University of Madrid (2000-2001). He is an editorial board member of the magazine El Notario del siglo XXI, patron of the Matritense Foundation of Notaries and the Coprodeli Foundation. He has published a large number of works (monographs, articles in specialized journals, jurisprudential publications, etc.) both in Civil, Mercantile, Mortgage and Notarial Law, alongside regular contributions to the newspapers El País, El Mundo, Cinco Días, Expansión and the magazine Claves de Razón Práctica. He is the author of the essay Ocho minutos de arco - Essay on the Political Importance of Moral Archetypes, published by Antonio Machado Books. He is co-editor of the blog ¿Hay Derecho?, was a member of UPyD’s board of directors, and provides technical advice to the Ciudadanos party in the ambit of ​​Justice.

Javier de la Cueva

Boardmember

Javier holds a degree in Law and a PhD in Philosophy from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and works as a lawyer. He has served as defense on numerous cases related to the use of licenses which are free from intellectual property rights, and of different technological platforms. He is a Professor of Intellectual Property on the Musical Creation degree course at the European University of Madrid, and of Information Law: Media Regulation on the Bachelor’s Degree in Communication at IE University.

Alongside his work as a lawyer, he is currently busy planning various technological projects, lecturing and writing about his specialization. He has been a GNU / Linux user since 1998 and has been a system administrator for the operating system since 2003. He writes his scripts in Python and enjoys n3 notation for modeling semantic web ontologies.

José Luis Marín

Boardmember

José Luis Marín holds an MSc in Telecommunications Engineering and a Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Valladolid. His career has been developed in the company Gateway S.C.S. (owner of EuroAlert.net), of which he is a partner and director. EuroAlert is currently building a pan-European platform capable of adding public tenders worth 18% of EU GDP, to create valuable services for companies and organizations around the world.

He has been an expert evaluator of Research and Innovation projects for the European Commission for more than 5 years and has also directed more than 10 R&D projects on Internet-associated technologies. He is the author of several publications such as the book “Web 2.0: A simple description of the changes we are living” and co-author of “Open Data: Reuse of public information”. He regularly participates in initiatives related to the promotion of open source software, innovation and free and open knowledge, such as those related to the Open Data movement.

Olivier Schulbaum

Boardmember

Co-founder of Platoniq, an organization of cultural producers and software developers, and vicepresident of the Fundación Goteo. From there, he co-directs Goteo.org, a social network for collective financing (crowdfunding) and distributed collaboration for projects whose aims are social, cultural, scientific, educational, technological or ecological.

Since 2001 he has carried out actions and projects in which technology is applied to the promotion of communication, self-training and citizen organization. His projects include Common Knowledge Bank, a knowledge and education exchange platform; the OpenServer public streaming server; the temporary media laboratory, Media Space Invaders; and the creation of the first copyleft license in the Spanish legal framework, Unconditional Air. In addition, Mr. Schulbaum has won several awards for his project Burn Station, a copyleft music copying station.

Mar Abad

Boardmember

Mar Abad is editorial director and co-founder of the podcast label El Extraordinario. She is the author of Antiguas pero modernas (Libros del K.O.), El folletín ilustrado (Lunwerg) and De estraperlo a postureo (Larousse). Don Quixote Journalism Prize 2020, Miguel Delibes National Award for Journalism 2019, Colombine International Journalism Award 2018 and Accenture Journalism Award 2017 in the innovation category.

Mar holds a degree in Journalism from the Faculty of Information Sciences (Complutense University of Madrid) (UCM) and a Master’s degree in Economic Information from the UCM and the Association of Economic Information Journalists (APIE).