Eloi Planes is emerging as the next president of the Family Business Institute

BarcelonaThe board of directors of the Institute for Family Business (IEF) will propose Eloi Planes, president of the Catalan company Fluidra, as its successor at Wednesday's assembly, according to information obtained by ARA. Currently, the IEF is chaired by Ignacio Rivera, president of Corporación Hijos de Rivera, whose term expires in 2026. However, the appointment must be approved by the IEF members' assembly—to be held in Barcelona—the IEF's highest decision-making body, which will meet in May. Typically, the candidate proposed by the board is approved unanimously at the assembly, so it is highly likely that Planes will become the institution's seventeenth president. Planes, president of the Catalan swimming pool giant Fluidra, is currently a member of the IEF board and has long been considered a possible successor to Rivera at the head of the association. Rivera assumed the presidency of the organization in May 2024, succeeding Andrés Sendagorta, president of Sener. The terms stipulated for the presidency of the IEF are two years and non-renewable, according to the institution's statutes, and outgoing presidents generally join the board as members.

A Catalan giant

Eloi Planes (Barcelona, ​​1969) is an industrial engineer from the UPC (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from EADA Business School. He began working at the family business in 1994. In 2006, he was appointed CEO of the company, by then renamed Fluidra, and in 2007 he led its initial public offering (IPO). Since 2016, he has been the executive chairman of Fluidra, which in 2017 announced its merger with the US company Zodiac. This merger made Fluidra a leader in the sector and led to its inclusion in the IBEX 35, the benchmark index of the Spanish stock exchange, in 2021. Fluidra is a giant with more than 6,500 employees worldwide, over €2.1 billion in annual revenue, subsidiaries in 47 countries, and 36 production centers.

To date, sixteen renowned business leaders have held the presidency of the IEF: Leopoldo Rodés (Havas), the first president and one of the founders of the institution; Mariano Puig (Puig); José María Serra (Catalana Occidente); Rafael del Pino (Ferrovial); José Manuel Lara (Planeta); Alfonso Solans (Pikolin); Juan Roig (Mercadona); Simón Pedro Barceló (Grupo Barceló); Isak Andic (Mango); José Manuel Entrecanales (Acciona); Javier Moll (Prensa Ibérica); Ignacio Osborne (Osborne); Francisco J. Riberas (Gestamp); Marc Puig (Puig); Andrés Sendagorta (Sener); and Ignacio Rivera (Corporación Hijos de Rivera). The IEF, founded in 1992, is a nationwide, non-profit organization that brings together around one hundred leading companies in their respective sectors, with an average turnover per company of €1.5 billion, representing an aggregate of 17.5%. This includes the Territorial Family Business Associations linked to the institution, which encompass some 1,100 companies. All its members are presidents, CEOs, or board members of the family businesses they own.