An engineer leaves and a financier enters. Maite Barrera will assume the presidency of Barcelona Global for the next two years, thus taking over from Aurora Catà, who is completing a particularly productive mandate despite the pandemic difficulties. "He sets the bar at the highest level", assured Barrera, who assumes the position with the aim of "attracting talent to the city and, above all, retaining it" and with his sights set on the great European capitals. “Let's think big, we have enthusiasm; You will hear few comparisons with Madrid, and more with Amsterdam or Berlin”.
Founder of Bluecap, a benchmark in strategic consulting, and member of the executive committee of the Globant group, a technological unicorn listed in New York, Barrera has been officially appointed by the General Assembly this afternoon. The first woman president of Esade Alumni will chair a partially renewed board, in which seven members continue in addition to her, and ten are incorporated. Among them, Gerard Piqué, Sergi Ferrer-Salat, Oriol Pinya, Daniel Puig or Josep Lluís Sanfeliu. The last three, along with Oscar Pierre will be the four vice presidents.
“It is a powerful team with diverse profiles, a new, multifaceted, young and varied board, of different political stripes but in which we all agree to work for a great Barcelona”, maintains Barrera. The new president has thanked the support received within the entity and has insisted that "the city needs talent with a positive impact to grow in a sustainable and inclusive way, these will be transversal elements".
There are two years ahead to consolidate and nurture the projects raised by the Catà board and manage one of the city's great challenges: the America's Cup, in whose candidacy Barcelona Global has played a more than decisive role. The candidacy of the event will have been achieved under the mandate of Catà, the management with that of Barrera and for the celebration (scheduled for autumn 2024), the entity will have already renewed the presidency. “Our projects are long-term, we are not the protagonists, we work for Barcelona”, concluded Barrera, who referred more to shared ambitions than to new concrete actions.
And it is that the two years of pandemic and telematic meetings have not prevented Catà from placing the entity in one of the best moments of its ten years of history. From the outset, the budget for this year is 2.5 million, one more than two years ago. “We have involved more companies and partners and thanks to the Barcelona strategy
In addition to its decisive role in the Copa del América, Barcelona
