Edurne Pasaban Lizarribal

Edurne Pasaban was born in Tolosa (Gipuzkoa) on the 1st August 1973.

She studied Technical Industrial Engineering at the University of the Basque Country, completed the ‘Senior Executive Program’ (SEP) at the ESADE Business School in Barcelona (2005-2006) and, in 2007, obtained a Master’s in ‘Executive Coaching and Management’ from the IE Business School in Madrid.

Her first job was as an engineer with the family business, ‘PASABAN S.A.’. The company, which manufactures paper cutting and winding machines, is an international market leader in its sector.

Edurne then went on to set up her own business: ABELETXE. Originally a small country hotel and restaurant, the premises have since undergone a complete renovation and been converted into one single venue, specifically designed for housing local events in the Basque Country.

There is also a charitable side to Edurne, particularly towards all those people in the Himalayas who have given her so much over the years. She is both a patron and the founder of ‘Mountaineers for Himalayas by Edurne Pasaban’. The work of this foundation involves developing projects which focus on the education of Himalayan children.

Edurne began hiking in the mountains with her parents on trips to the Pyrenees, and at 17 visited the Alps for the first time in order to try climbing. At 18 she began ascending mountains of over 6,000 metres in Ecuador, and finally travelled to the Himalayas for the first time in 1998. Since then, Edurne has continued to participate in different expeditions to mountains of over 8,000 metres, reaching the peak of Shisha Pangma in 2010 and becoming the first woman in the world to conquer the 14 ‘eight-thousanders’ found on the planet.

Edurne currently combines both her sporting and professional careers, working as a conference speaker and coach for both national and international companies. She organizes talks, training sessions and bespoke workshops in which she guides both teams and individuals towards their own personal goals through her experiences as a mountaineer. In addition, she gives classes as an associate teacher at the IE Business School and is an advisor for the ANTUERTA S.L. business group.