doJames Guardiola either Pink Canadas? That is the question this Tuesday in the Circle of Economywhich will celebrate its first election between two candidates in its 64-year history. Until now, although there was some attempt to present more than one, it was always resolved with a consensus candidacy at the proposal of the outgoing president and with the endorsement of a kind of ‘Senate’ formed by his predecessors. Guardiola managed to validate 588 of the 50 minimum endorsements necessary to present himself and Cañadas, 216. Members can endorse one or both candidacies.
The polls are open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Last week they held the only debate between the two, in which they showed their differences, which affect from the annual meeting that organizes the entity, its capacity to influence or the need to have greater external projection. The electoral table is chaired by the former president of the Cercle, Salvador Germanyand made up of Jordi Hereu and Mònica Ribé, both members of the outgoing board of directors, and Esther Seuma and Joan Torras, members of the Cercle chosen by lottery before a notary.
In addition to the direct vote, there is the possibility of the delegate by means of a properly sealed envelope with a photocopy of the identity document of the delegating partner and the envelope with the electoral ballot issued by the Cercle d’Economia. The counting process will be more complicated because it will be necessary to check the votes by proxy and if whoever did so has finally chosen to vote directly.
The former CEO of Banc Sabadell and chairman of the Esade board of trustees, Jaume Guardiola, proposes a 21-member board with the economist and director of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Teresa Garcia-Mila and the publisher of Random House, Nuria Cabuti as vice presidents. The other members are Quiroga Road (notary); Carmina Ganyet (Colonial); Oriol Aspachs (CaixaBank); Marc Puig (President of the Puig Group); Miguel Trias Sagnier (Quatrecasas); Jordi Amat (writer and philologist); Maite Barrera (president of Barcelona Global); Mercè Conesa (Incasol); Jose Maria Lassalle (strategic consultant, writer and political analyst); Nuria Mas (IESE and director of the Bank of Spain), Alfonso Rodes (Chairman of Havas Media Group); Francesc Rubiralta (Celsa Group); Laura Urquizu (CEO and President of Red Points and Xavier Vives (IESE). All of them, including Guardiola, are already part of the current board. In addition, it incorporates Clara Campas (Asabys Partners), Pol Morels (director of Cidob), Dani Aicart (Barcelona Municipal Services) and Rita Almela (entrepreneur, investor and expert in digital transformation, innovation and technology and founding partner of 101 Ventures).
Cañadas, who is president of Trea Capital Partner and the Tanja foundation, proposes a 16-member board with Sasha Michaud (Glovo); Gerard Garcia (Founder and CEO of Deale); Joan Francesc Baño (founding partner of Open House Games and mentor of ‘start-ups through Aticco Lab); Joseph Gomez Torres (Founder and CEO of Reby), Ramon Palou (founder of Onsecur); as well as Maria Rosa Fiol (Metal.lurgical Employer Union); Jorge Lasheras (former president of Yamaha in Spain and currently president of the Japan Business Circle; Marina Lopez Sanjurjo (director and corporate director of the Hotusa group); Rosa Nonell (PhD in Economics from the University of Barcleona (UB); Flat Martha (co-founder of Digital Origin); Xavier Prats (Teach for All Special Advisor); Stella Raventós-Calvo (president of the Spanish Association of Tax Advisors); Joseph Soler (director general of the Institute of Financial Studies), Silvia Sorribas (Telam) and Rafael Vilasanjuan (IS Global and columnist for EL PERIÓDICO). Only Cañadas herself, Marta Plana and Rosa Nonell have been part of previous meetings of the Cercle.
Some consider that the result will reflect a kind of evaluation of the presidency of Javier Faus, who will deliver the baton to Guardiola or Cañadas. The outgoing president had a stormy start by changing 70% of the board and making it equal between men and women and making decisions without counting on the previous presidents, which caused protests that resulted in an agreement.
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Faus also promoted that the annual meeting, the event that brings together the best of politics and economics, moved from Sitgeswhere it has been held since 1997, to Barcelona. The two editions in the Catalan capital after the parenthesis of the pandemic in 2020, with the Italian Prime Minister mario draghiKing Philip and even the President of Korea, Moon Jae In; and that of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenin this year’s edition, had a great convening capacity.
Guardiola defends this change, as when the Cercle went from meetings on the Costa Brava to Sitges; and Cañadas assures that the entity has the capacity to organize two annual meetings: one more conjunctural in the Catalan capital and another one for reflection and debate and greater participation of the partners, outside of Barcelona.