PRISA DIGITAL, (PRISA), ES

PRISA is the world's leading Spanish and Portuguese-language business group in the fields of education, information and entertainment. Present in 22 countries, it reaches more than 50 million users through its global brands El País, 40 Principales, Santillana and Alfaguara. It's presence in Brazil and Portugal and among the growing Hispanic community in the US has given the group an Ibero-American dimension and has opened up a potential global market of 700 million people. The PRISA Digital is the catalyst of online business growth across the PRISA Group by defining overall online strategy, by managing online monetization, by leading online innovation, by supporting the creation of new online businesses and providing online technology platform services to BUs with the highest quality at the lowest cost, creating technology platform synergies across the Group.

Role in the Project: PRISA has the role of end-user in the SMART consortium, and it will emphasize on the live news use case. Its involvement will be primarily in the production of requirements and specifications with emphasis on live news and social media use cases (WP2), as well as in the validation, evaluation and sustainability of the project’s results (WP6/WP7).

Rahul Puri is Managing Director of Innovation/Chief Software Architect and responsible for digital innovation for Grupo Prisa. He is a recognized leader in enterprise architecture, IT implementation and operations with experience in the private, non-profit and government sectors. Many of Puri's work on systems, products and data integration models in government technology and efficiency have been replicated by other U.S. and international city, state and federal municipalities as well as private organizations. Puri was born and raised in New York City and received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Binghamton University, New York. Prior to joining Group Prisa in May 2010, Puri worked in New York City government for seven years, most recently serving as Chief Software Architect of HHS Connect - the Mayor´s Special Office for the CIO of Health and Human Services.

Javier Lasa is head of R&D department at Prisa Digital (www.prisa.com) Media Group, where he is responsible for innovation in multimedia and mobility projects. He received his MA in Television Production at Middlesex University, London, UK, and B.Sc degree in Marketing and Advertising form Complutense University, Madrid and B.Sc degree in Information Science form Basque Country University, Bilbao. Javier Lasa has achieved more that 20 years of professional experience gained in TV, multimedia, and Internet industry since 1988. He worked 7 years as Internet channels content manager at Vocento Media group and formerly gained 8 years on multimedia production at Integra Multimedia.