Maximo Plo

Máximo Plo specialises in open innovation, collaborative facilitation and the design of strategies to address complex social and environmental challenges. His work brings together public authorities, businesses, academia and civil society to turn shared challenges into innovative, viable solutions with the potential to create systemic impact.

He is a Partner and Director of Innovation Labs at SustainableStartup&Co and leads the development of KiteLab, a methodology applied in more than thirty innovation labs and collaborative processes across communities, regions and organisations. His practice combines systems thinking, facilitation and participatory design, with particular attention to trust among stakeholders, collective decision-making and the sustained development of proposals beyond the lab. His work spans housing, energy renovation, the circular economy, rural development, local commerce and public sector transformation, among many other topics.

He served for three years as a strategic adviser to Spain’s Mission Cities through the URBANEW project within NetZeroCities, contributing to collaboration, planning and governance strategies to accelerate urban energy renovation. This work connected the seven Spanish cities participating in the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities with stakeholders across different levels of government, supporting the transformation of buildings and neighbourhoods through shared approaches to financing, participation and institutional coordination.

The processes developed by his team have led to initiatives such as MIEB, an entrepreneurship accelerator in Móstoles with four editions confirmed, and VAR, a rural rental housing programme in Burgos. VAR emerged from a lab addressing access to housing that was presented to the Spanish Senate’s Demographic Challenge Committee, with €391,000 allocated to fund the resulting solutions. These initiatives reflect a central commitment in his practice: connecting co-creation with decisions, programmes and institutional structures that can sustain change.

His career bridges innovation, education and social impact. At SEK Education Group, he coordinated its impact community and founded Impact Lab, the group’s first social entrepreneurship incubator, which supported twenty projects in its inaugural cohort. Previously, he was Director of European Operations at Diversity Atlas, Cultural Infusion’s platform specialising in diversity and inclusion. He has worked as a consultant for Deloitte and Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Education, facilitated teams for WorldSkills International, and conducted research for Harvard University’s Ministerial Leadership Program and Fundación Alternativas.

He holds a master’s degree in Education from Harvard University, where he studied as a Fulbright and RCC scholar; a master’s degree in Economics from the College of Europe, supported by an AECID scholarship; and a dual degree in Law and Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.