Daniel Serra

I am an innovation expert with more than 20 years of hands-on experience building the things that most organisations only talk about: ecosystems that actually connect people, programmes that deliver results, and strategies that survive contact with reality. My career has taken me from the factory floor of Tier-1 automotive suppliers to the boardrooms of European institutions, and that breadth is not incidental — it is the foundation of how I think and what I bring to every engagement.

I started in automotive engineering, managing complex product launches and cross-border projects for companies like Ford, SEAT, Volvo and Daimler. Those early years taught me something that no MBA course fully captures: how large organisations make decisions under pressure, where strategy breaks down in execution, and what it takes to move things forward when the interests at the table are genuinely conflicting. By the time I transitioned into innovation, I already knew that the hardest part is never the idea — it is the system around it.

That conviction shaped everything I did next. At CARNET — the Future Mobility Research Hub co-founded by SEAT, Volkswagen Group Research and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya — I helped build one of the first structured public–private innovation partnerships in Southern Europe focused on urban mobility. I managed over 60 collaborative research projects, co-led flagship initiatives like the Virtual Mobility Lab and MaaS Catalonia, and spent three years learning how to make academia, industry and city government work together productively. It is harder than it sounds, and more rewarding than most work I have done.

From there I joined EIT Urban Mobility at its founding, and spent the better part of seven years helping build what became Europe’s largest innovation community in urban mobility: over 1,000 partner organisations across 35 countries, a portfolio of more than 150 invested startups, and a pan-European ecosystem that connected cities, operators, corporates, research institutions and ventures around a shared agenda. I led the ecosystem and stakeholder function, grew membership revenues from €1.4 million to €2.5 million in 18 months, trained and developed over 40 partner-facing professionals, and eventually took on the leadership of the Impact Ventures unit, responsible for deploying approximately €6 million in seed investment in 2025. None of that happened through clever slide decks. It happened through sustained relationship-building, a clear sense of where value actually lies, and a willingness to stay close to the work.

What I have developed over these two decades is a specific kind of expertise: I know how innovation ecosystems are built and how they fail, how European programmes work from the inside, how to translate policy ambitions into concrete investment and partnership logic, and how to help organisations find their place in a landscape that is always more complex than it first appears. I am equally comfortable working at the level of strategy and at the level of execution — in fact, I think that distinction is often less useful than it seems.

Today I work independently, advising organisations across mobility, smart cities and European innovation on strategy, ecosystem positioning, programme design and partnership development. I also serve as a Board Member of Gaia-X Spain, mentor professionals through EMCC Global and Esade Business School, and speak regularly at events including Smart City Expo World Congress and the International Transport Forum. I hold an Executive MBA from Esade Business School and a Master’s in Management Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de València.

I am based in Barcelona, work across Europe, and am open to strategic consulting engagements, interim leadership roles and advisory or board positions.