The use of augmented intelligence and expansion into markets such as Africa and Asia are key challenges for the leading school in legal and financial education.
This Friday in Madrid, the institution is organizing the 6th ISDE Sports Convention on law and the sports industry, in collaboration with LaLiga.
Madrid, June 4 – For lawyer Juan José Sánchez Puig (Madrid, 1977), CEO of ISDE Business School, the leading institution in legal and financial education in Spain, managing success is harder than reaching the top. With EBITDA growth of over 30% in the past year and more than 1,300 students – just in the legal area – in the current academic year, Sánchez Puig is betting on new technologies and the medium-term international expansion of the institution’s successful model to conquer new markets such as Africa and Asia.
“AI is here to stay, and if you don’t create value, it will overtake you,” warns Sánchez Puig in this interview for the ISDE Sports Convention (ISC) communications team. The ISC is the leading international congress on law and the sports industry, organized by ISDE in collaboration with LaLiga, whose sixth edition will be held this Friday, June 6, at the Centro Municipal Galileo in Madrid.
The ISDE CEO, who began working at the institution in January 2004, highlights that this year’s ISC will be “packed with new developments,” including an ethical analysis and debate on the application of AI in high-performance sports, the rise of new sports formats like the Kings League (promoted by Gerard Piqué’s company Kosmos), and emerging markets like Africa, with the 2030 World Cup—co-organized by Morocco, Spain, and Portugal—as a backdrop.
“We were the first to identify emerging markets like the Middle East, and now we’re turning toward Africa,”says Sánchez Puig. One roundtable will feature Brian Wesaala, President of the Africa Football Foundation, and Sarah Ochowada, FIFA representative in Africa. He also celebrates that the organizing committee, including former handball international José Javier ‘Jota’ Hombrados, has secured other “powerful panels” featuring LaLiga President Javier Tebas and FIBA Europe President Jorge Garbajosa, among others.
After LatAm, Africa and Japan?
With campuses in Barcelona (the first), Madrid, Asturias, and New York, ISDE launched its Master’s in International Advocacy and Digital Law in Mexico this past April. “We had to be in Mexico, as it has a huge Latin American market, and many firms are setting up there. We not only have to attract talent to train here but also support its development locally,” said the CEO. He did not rule out exporting Sports Law programs if the new campus consolidates.
In Saudi Arabia, ISDE trained executives from the national Olympic committee, football league, and government officials—the same model used in Dubai and Qatar shortly before the 2022 World Cup.
“We’ve also been active in Africa because more and more students are coming from those countries. In December, we participated in the most important sports congress on the continent, in Kenya. If we train the right leaders, that wealth can reach the population, and that’s a way of contributing to Africa’s development,”he said.
He illustrated the idea with a parable: give a farmer tools, seeds, and fertile soil, and they’ll grow tomatoes and become self-sufficient. “ISDE has identified an opportunity through sports—why? Because sports and sports law are global. In the future, we’ll begin training in Africa, although without a permanent campus yet. The next step could be Asia, specifically Japan. In 2017, we trained the J-League, and we’re currently in talks with Waseda University in Tokyo,” he revealed.
The ISDE Method: Tailor-made Headhunters
What sets the ISC apart, according to Sánchez Puig, is that speakers share practical experiences as a “pedagogical vehicle” to train future leaders. “In law, we are leaders, and the most important thing about this congress is sharing knowledge within ISDE’s success ecosystem: the combination of top talent, the best professors, the top firms, and having those firms recruit our students. At ISDE, theory and practice aren’t separate—they go hand in hand, alongside top brands and prime campuses in Madrid, Barcelona, Asturias, and New York, fully integrated into the professional world. That’s how we fulfill the founding firms’ mission: to scout, identify, and train talent to bring it into their teams. They act as their own headhunters,” he explained.
Committed to educating the best with the best, Sánchez Puig noted that ISDE collaborates with Georgetown and the University of Miami in the U.S., among others. “If you’re trained in solid values, there’s a great return: more clients, more cases, and more income. And if you’re a principled person, you govern money—it doesn’t corrupt you,” he summarized.
Among the company’s upcoming projects, after being acquired by Magnum Capital four years ago, are the Summer School, a new module in the financial area through an agreement with Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), which he says is one of the most exciting for the 2025–2026 academic year. He also wants to expand the school’s bachelor’s offerings. “ISDE can’t have only one Law degree, even if we are number one in both student numbers and excellence. We’re now launching other degrees in International Trade, Economics, and—why not someday—a degree in Business Administration,” he hoped.
The AI Water Drop
How will AI impact the legal world? Will it offer added value for professionals to counteract its threat? “AI is here to stay, and if you don’t create value, it will overtake you. Institutions like ISDE push you to keep training at the highest level because the value you generate is irreplaceable by technology. AI should make you more competitive, and the client should feel that added value in the service you deliver,” Sánchez Puig replied.
He believes the goal is to ride the technological wave and avoid being overwhelmed. He recalls a lesson from Javier Rodríguez Zapatero, former CEO of Google and President of Grupo Digitalent, about the water drop: “He told me, ‘You say technology doesn’t kill you, just like a drop of water doesn’t. But it’s that last drop that makes it impossible to breathe—and in the end, it’s the drop that kills you, not the 100,000 centiliters before it.’”
That AI drop will be picked up by national basketball coach Sergio Scariolo in one of the six roundtables of ISC 2025, which will again feature LaLiga, considered a “Spain brand” for national sports abroad. “Javier Tebas is a great sports lawyer and a brilliant manager. He has turned an association into a company that supports between 500 and 600 families,” Sánchez Puig emphasized.
Among this year’s ISC 2025 honorees, the ISDE CEO highlighted the “social work” of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation with victims of recent floods and its support for Olympic and Paralympic athletes in their training; the “family ties and legendary status” of Rodolfo “Rudy” Fernández; the “generosity” and “warm speech” of swimmer Teresa Perales, Spain’s most decorated Paralympian (28 medals); and admitted that Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, is his “personal favorite.” “He’s put Madrid on the global sports map,” said Puig, who once dreamed of playing for Real Madrid, is a practicing Catholic, and father of two daughters.
According to the executive, a true leader must lead “in a positive way.” “A strong profit and loss account is where good leadership is truly reflected,” he concluded from his office’s meeting room in the Spanish capital.
For more information: hperello@isde.es