Rodrigo Rubido Alonso was born in the year 1975 in Brazil, being part of the first generation of a Spanish family in Brazil. He was raised in a very small city, in an economically poor neighborhood but, thanks to his parents had the opportunity to receive and education and finish university, which few friends were able to do. The opportunity to live with such different people, living in a poor neighborhood offered him many of the richest experiences of his life and he learned how to appreciate the value and the beauty of people regardless of social or economic position.

His professional education is in architecture and urban planning, although he considers himself a social designer and a social entrepreneur. He brought from his architectural education the creativity and ability to design solutions but works to translate it into the process of social, environmental and human transformation.

As a student, he organized several students’ gatherings and has been passionate about the power of the collective action and also about working with young people. At Instituto Elos he had the opportunity to join 3 passions: enjoy the company and the wisdom of simple people in communities, collective action and young people. In last 15 years, he has been working with community empowerment, having worked with more than 30 different communities in Brazil, and specially training young people from all over the world in social entrepreneurship through a program called Warriors Without Weapons.  He likes to dream together with other people he cares about and to make common dreams come true. He has been engaged with this for 15 years together with friends and partners at Instituto Elos (Links Institute), a non-profit organization of which he is co-founder.