Pablo Castiella is the Commercial Director and one of the founding partners of baobab. Get to know him a bit better in this interview.
Who is Pablo Castiella? A physicist turned entrepreneur almost since out of college.
Why did you take an MSc in Physics? I have to confess that I wanted to become an Industrial Engineer, but my grades out of school were not good enough – being born in a baby boom didn’t help. It was after passing my first term in Physics (in September, though), that I began to enjoy the way of approaching and facing problems so much that I decided to stay on course. But I am very glad to have founded baobab and be so close to engineering. Baobab has allowed me to see how many industries work from the inside and how, in detail, very different manufacturing processes, from cars to yogurts, really are.
What motivated you to embrace a career in Sales? Well, my sales career started by joining several things that I am good at: understanding technological processes, the ability to explain them, and the urge to solve complicated problems. It didn’t take me long to discover that these skills are in demand for highly technical jobs.
Why advanced analytics? I first faced a neural network in my last years at college when these techniques were completely unknown. We managed to recognize alphanumeric patterns!!! Whereas for several years my career has been related to telecommunications, Operations Research has allowed me to tackle problems from very diverse sectors. Mathematics allows to improve processes in any type of company.
It is not an obvious discipline. What did you see in advanced analytics and your cofounders that made you take the leap? On the one hand, I never doubted the power of mathematics when helping to make complex decisions and, on the other hand, the vocation of excellence of the rest of the baobab partners, both teaching and professional, is a value that made me believe in this project from the beginning, almost 9 years ago!
What have you learnt from baobab? That things can be done differently, that a company can grow organically, sustainably, hand in hand with the professional development of its team. I have also learnt to believe in young talent; we have really good people who stand out since the first months at baobab.
What achievement are you most proud of? Our first project, obviously, right after you have created the company and you have to get someone to believe in it…, it seemed very important to me. After that, I think that international projects are the one I feel most proud of. The fact that European and American companies trust baobab over other local players is something that I find especially fulfilling.
What is your vision for baobab in, say, 5 years? In a few years, I see baobab as a bigger company, but one that has not lost its essence of excellence, camaraderie, and the spirit in which we founded it: dedicating ourselves to “solving puzzles”.
