Ibon María ARESO MENDIGUREN

Urban architect. Former Mayor of the Bilbao City Council. Bilbao, Spain.

An urban architect by profession, trained at the University of Barcelona, he served as Deputy Minister for Spatial Planning of the Basque Government. He was later appointed to head the Municipal Office created to draft the new General Urban Development Plan of Bilbao, which laid the groundwork for the city’s transformation. In May 1991, he entered the Bilbao City Council as an elected official and was appointed First Deputy Mayor and Head of the Urban Planning Department. This provided him with a rare professional opportunity: to participate in the drafting of an urban development plan and later, from a political position, to contribute to its implementation and development. In March 2014, he was appointed Mayor of the city, a position he held until June 2015.