Josep Lluís Sanfeliu, new president of Barcelona Global

BarcelonaThe co-founder and managing partner of the specialized investment fund Asabys Capital, Josep Lluís Sanfeliu, has been appointed this Friday as the new president of the business lobby Barcelona Global. Sanfeliu takes over from the outgoing president, Damm director Ramon Agenjo, who has led the professional association for the past two years. For his term, which will extend until 2028, Sanfeliu wants to "take care of talent" and accelerate the attraction of international investments to the country's capital.

The entity's general assembly, meeting in the auditorium of the World Trade Center in the port of Barcelona, ratified Sanfeliu's candidacy without any alternative proposals. The co-founder of Asabys was part of the outgoing executive committee, and ran for president at the proposal of Agenjo himself. For the next two years, he has set a priority of making Barcelona "a place where talent finds purpose, capital finds projects, science finds solutions, and ideas find execution".

Sanfeliu has identified housing, mobility, and security as the main challenges facing Barcelona in the short term. To address them, he has highlighted his mandate to "protect what Barcelona has, improve what doesn't work, attract what we need, and retain what we cannot lose".

The executive committee that will accompany the new president until 2028 has renewed roughly half of its members. Of the 20 people who are part of it, 9 are new additions, including the general director of Telefónica in Catalonia, Chema Casas, and the Michelin-starred chef Romain Fornell, in addition to vice-presidents Rafael Fontana and Lluís Seguí. From the previous board, profiles such as the executive director of the audiovisual congress ISE, Mike Blackman, and the territorial director of CaixaBank in Barcelona, Maria Alsina, will continue, as well as vice-president Carmina Ganyet. Cuatrecasas partner Héctor Bros will continue as secretary, and Mercè Conesa will remain in general management.

Barcelona & Partners

The new president has boasted about Barcelona Global's capacity to facilitate new technological investment in the city. In this regard, he has celebrated the role of Barcelona & Partners, the investment agency linked to the lobby, which he said does "essential work" to boost the city's innovative ecosystem. The attraction of international capital "has an incredible impact on future talent," according to Sanfeliu, who believes it offers impact projects to work in their city.

The latest project, presented this Thursday, was the investment by the British deep tech company Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) of 92 million euros in a new quantum computing center, which will be the largest in all of Southern Europe. For the period 2026-2028, Sanfeliu has set the goal of maintaining the pace of "Barcelona's technological development", especially regarding artificial intelligence and quantum technologies projects, such as the one brought by OQC.

A

side from the appointment of the new president, Barcelona Global's members have celebrated Agenjo's mandate. According to his successor, he has contributed in the last two years to "internationally positioning Barcelona as a benchmark". Furthermore, the annual budget of 2.5 million euros has been approved. The association currently has 1,238 members, of whom 15% were born outside of Spain, and approximately 10% live and work outside of Spain.