Warren Buffett quits completely and Anthropic lands in Spain

The tourism fair B-Travel, the supermarket chain Ametller Origen, and the health sector knowledge business association Catalonia.health have announced changes to their leadership this week, which has also been marked by new appointments in the transport and real estate sectors. Furthermore, Anthropic, one of the giants of artificial intelligence (AI), has landed in the Spanish market with the appointment of a new head in the country, while in the United States, billionaire Warren Buffett has announced that he is leaving the chairmanship of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway to his son Howard Buffett.

Warren Buffett

Chairman emeritus of Berkshire Hathaway

The American billionaire Warren Buffett announced this Friday that he is stepping down as chairman of his business group, Berkshire Hathaway, at the age of 96 and handing over the reins to his son Howard Buffett, who was already a member of the board of directors. The announcement comes months after the tycoon appointed Greg Abel as CEO.

Buffett—considered for decades one of the richest people in the world—will maintain a seat on the board of Berkshire Hathaway as "chairman emeritus," but will no longer hold any position with direct responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the company he led for 60 years, according to a statement from the group. Due to his age, the billionaire has shed his responsibilities as founder and top executive of the financial holding company over the last two years, also following the 2023 death of who was his partner and right-hand man, Charlie Munger.

Berkshire Hathaway is a business conglomerate valued at more than a trillion dollars with stakes in companies of all kinds, from railroads to insurers, including technology firms, ice cream parlor chains, or fashion companies, among others. The group's high levels of profit thanks to its good ability to select investments have turned Buffett into one of the most respected businessmen in the world, to the point of receiving the nickname Oracle of Omaha.

Rafa Serra

President of B-Travel

Rafa Serra will be the new president of the B-Travel tourism show organizing committee, as approved by the Fira de Barcelona board of directors this past Monday. Currently, the executive presides—with a mandate until 2030—over the Corporate Association of Specialized Travel Agencies (ACAVe), the sector's employers' association in the country based in Barcelona.

In addition, Serra has over 30 years of experience in the tourism sector as CEO of the agency Temps d'Oci. He is also part of the Salat'SHH group, which leads the rehabilitation of iconic hostels on the Costa Brava in historic buildings, transforming them into sustainable hotel projects.

In his new responsibility at the head of the B-Travel 2027 organizing committee, Serra faces a stage of transformation for the show towards a model that combines the offer to the end consumer with a greater number of proposals aimed at sector professionals.

The appointment of the Catalan executive comes at a time when B-Travel sets the goal of growing with the incorporation of new areas, such as cultural tourism, wine tourism, or active tourism. With his arrival at the leadership of the congress, an end is put to the stage in this position of Martí Sarrate, who has led the event since 2019 and during some complicated years marked by the pandemic.

Cristina Pitarch

Country manager for Anthropic in Spain

The North American artificial intelligence multinational Anthropic has landed in the Spanish market. To lead the new delegation in Madrid, the company has appointed as country manager Cristina Pitarch, an executive with more than 15 years of professional experience specializing in cybersecurity.

Pitarch has held executive positions in various companies, including Google. In fact, the executive makes the leap to Anthropic from Google Cloud Security, where she held the general management for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The executive wants to make Anthropic a leading company in security "in the field of AI" both in southern Europe and "for the entire Spanish-speaking world".

Sergio Pérez

General Manager of retailat Ametller Origen

The Catalan food and supermarket group Ametller Origen has appointed a new general manager of retail, Sergio Pérez, a position from which he will assume responsibilities in the commercial, logistics, and personnel areas. According to a statement from the company, "the appointment responds to the desire to strengthen the organizational structure, gain efficiency, and continue building an increasingly competitive retailmodel".

Pérez holds a degree in chemistry and completed a director-to-board-member program at the IESE business school. Furthermore, he developed his professional career at the Spanish subsidiary of the German chain Lidl, where he was responsible for sales and operations since 2018.

Laura Iglesias

General Director of Catalonia.health

Catalonia.health, an entity representing companies and knowledge agents in the health and life sciences sector in Catalonia, has announced this week the appointment of Laura Iglesias as the association's general manager.

With a degree in genetics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a PhD in molecular biosciences from the University of Geneva, Iglesias has worked for seven years in translational research and leadership within health innovation ecosystems. Her fields of expertise include R&D in diagnostics and stem cell biology, European project management, and the strategic development of collaboration agreements in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and digital health sectors.

The Catalan scientist joined Catalonia.health, which is headquartered at the Barcelona Science Park, as a business developer manager in 2024 until the following year when she took on the general management on an interim basis, which she now assumes permanently. Her objective will be to "grow" and "strengthen the connections between the companies and agents" of the Catalan health sector ecosystem.

Francisco López Ramón

Territorial Director for Aliseda in Catalonia

The real estate consultancy and asset management firm Aliseda has a new regional director for Catalonia, Francisco López Ramón. With this appointment, the company seeks to "strengthen its presence in one of the most strategic real estate markets in the country and promote new business opportunities," as it reported in a statement.

The executive has 25 years of experience in the sector, where he has worked as a manager in companies such as BNP Paribas Real Estate and the management firm CBRE. Before joining Aliseda, López Ramón was head of the hotel division in Spain and director of Catalonia and Valencia for BNP Paribas Real Estate.

The real estate consultancy emphasizes that the appointment of a new regional manager strengthens the company's "management team" and "structure" in Catalonia. According to the company, the Catalan market is "strategic for Aliseda due to its high investment appeal, the weight of private capital, and the ability to generate opportunities."

Rodrigo Vázquez

General Manager of onRisk (Mutua Propietarios Group)

Also within the real estate sector, the insurer Grup Mutua Propietarios has appointed Rodrigo Vázquez as the new general manager of onRisk, an underwriting agency in the Spanish market for special risks.

Vázquez arrives at the company from NAMES Europe, where he was director of new business lines. The executive, who holds a degree in Business Administration from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a master's degree in insurance management from ICEA, has twenty-five years of experience in the insurance sector.

Margot Olifson

Country manager for Spain and Italy at Trainline

Margot Olifson is the new top executive of Trainline in Spain and Italy, as reported by the online train ticket purchasing platform. The executive has about 14 years of experience at the marketplaceAmerican eBay, where she has held various positions of responsibility in Zurich and Milan.

Olifson arrives with the task of consolidating the company in both markets and strengthening alliances with operators in the railway sector, in "a context of evolution of mobility and growing digitalization of the travel experience".

Pedro Martínez Moreno

General Secretary of Conetrans

The Spanish Confederation of Road Transport Organizations (Conetrans) has appointed Pedro Martínez Moreno as the new secretary general to strengthen "its work of representation and defense" of the sector before the administrations and other agents of the sector, according to a statement from the entity.

Martínez Moreno is an agricultural technical engineer and has worked for a good part of his professional career at the Dutch bodywork manufacturer Berdex. In addition, he is the secretary general of CETM Animales Vivos, an organization of transporters specialized in the transport of live animals, and previously, he was at the head of ANTA, the employers' association for animal transport.

Jorge Bujía

Chief Financial Officer of Grupo Prisa

The media group Prisa –owner, among others, of El País and Cadena SER– has had a new chief financial officer since last Monday, Jorge Bujía, who replaces Francisco Javier Ruiz, as the company reported in a statement to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). Bujía had until now been chief operating and financial officer of Santillana, a publishing subsidiary of the Madrid-based company.

Jaume López Puigvert

General Manager of Vetformación

The vocational training school for veterinary clinical assistants Vetformación has appointed Jaume López Puigvert as the new general director of the company, according to a statement. The company closed 2025 with about 10,000 students spread across fifty training centers in Spain, Andorra, and Portugal.