Evaristo Mejide -usually known as Risto Mejide- is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 publicist

Publicist

A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...

, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, music producer and songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, best known as a judge on the television show Operación Triunfo

Operación Triunfo

Operación Triunfo is a reality-show talent contest which first aired on Spain's TVE network in 2001. A kind of cross between Pop Idol, Voces en Función, Star Search, and Big Brother, the show aimed to find the country's next solo singing sensation, putting a selection of hopefuls through their...

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Risto Mejide holds a degree and MBA from the ESADE

ESADE

The Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas is a college associated with the Ramon Llull University located in Barcelona, Spain. ESADE is composed of three departments; the ESADE Business School, the ESADE Executive Language Center and the ESADE Law School...

 business school (1997) where he also worked as a teacher.

Mejide joined the jury of the show on its fifth series

Operación Triunfo Fifth Series

Telecinco announced in May 2006 that the fifth series of the program was to be released in October 2006.On July 25, 2006 Telecinco released a TV show called Operación Triunfo 2006: Otra Vez en Marcha...

 and became known for his comments, which often offended the contestants. He has been compared to Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell

Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...

. In 2008 Mejide published his first book, El Pensamiento Negativo ("The Negative Thinking"). In 2009 he began to work as a songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and music producer, associating himself with Labuat

Labuat

Labuat is a Spanish music band, formed in 2008 by the music duo The Pinker Tones, publicist Risto Mejide and Operación Triunfo 2008 winner Virginia Maestro....

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