Biographies

Manuel Barreiro Castañeda is the founder and chairman of the Aston Group, a private equity firm with $1 billion in investments to date. The firm develops real estate projects and makes private equity investments with a focus on North America and Europe.

Mr. Barreiro Castañeda is a strategic leader with over 20 years of high-level experience in international real estate, successfully advising public and private sector stakeholders on the intersection of technology, sustainability, mobility, and smart cities. Committed to sustainability, he works to ensure that his firm’s development projects benefit the local community by improving quality of life, reducing inequality gaps, and positively impacting the environment according to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Actively involved in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), he serves as Vice Chairman of the ITU’s “Working Group 8 on the Metaverse – Sustainability, Accessibility & Inclusion,” addressing sustainability, accessibility, and inclusion.

Complementing his industry experience, he completed the Oxford Real Estate Programme and the Oxford Programme on Valuation of Private Assets at the University of Oxford. He also holds an Executive Master of Science (MSc) in Cities from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he further developed his knowledge in sustainable urban development, mobility, and water management to enhance the quality of life in large cities and small urban areas. This degree also sparked his interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), which will be at the center of his projects in the near future.

Mr. Barreiro Castañeda also holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and a Bachelor’s in International Business from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. He completed academic exchange programs at higher learning institutions in Japan and Argentina, where he realized the importance of using technology for the benefit of vulnerable groups. This realization became his life’s mission — to create better cities for the future, starting in his native Mexico