María Belón

María Belón (born 1966) is a Spanish physician and motivational speaker, known for surviving the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami when she was on vacation in Thailand with her husband Enrique (Quique) Álvarez and three sons Lucas, Simón and Tomás Álvarez. She was severely injured in the tsunami and nearly died.She was portrayed in the 2012 film The Impossible by Naomi Watts (with the name changed to Bennett), who received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her performance. The familys nationality was unspecified in the film.Belón now travels around the world as an advocate for survivors of the tsunami and gives motivational speeches about how she overcame the turmoil and two years of recovery following her injuries. She studied to be a physician and also previously worked as a professor of management with the ESADE Business School, and as a business consultant for companies like Pepsi. She has stated that some of her family is from the Canary Islands.She was the Spotlight Guest Speaker at the Share Iuvare Business Convention in 2015. Also in 2015 she was a speaker at the World Business Forum. In 2013 she was a guest lecturer at the Instituto de Cervantes in Gibraltar.

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