Tatxo Benet is emerging as the next president of FemCAT

BarcelonaFemCAT, the private foundation of Catalan business leaders, will convene its members this Thursday afternoon in Arenys de Munt for its biennial assembly, during which a third of its board of trustees and the organization's presidency will be renewed. It will be at this meeting that the official decision will be made regarding who will succeed the current president. Oriol GuixàBut he has been considering a more plausible candidate for weeks: Tatxo Benet. According to ARA, the former president of Mediapro is the outgoing president's preferred candidate, although this still requires approval from the assembly.

Tatxo Benet (Lleida, 1957), a well-known businessman in the Catalan audiovisual sector, stepped down as executive president of Mediapro. in October 2025 After more than 30 years at the helm of the company, he was replaced by the former president of Telefónica Spain, Sergio Oslé. However, he still retains a 5% stake in the audiovisual company and is also the owner of the Ona Bookstore.

"If there are no surprises, the next president of FemCAT will be Tatxo Benet," business sources indicate, "but in the end, it depends on the vote at the assembly." "He's Guixà's personal choice; he's a strong and distinctive profile," another source points out. In any case, according to the bylaws, the president must be a member of the foundation's board of trustees, so Benedicto would first have to join as a new trustee and then be elected president by the renewed board.

Among other names, businessman Xavier Fitó, CEO of Semillas Fitó and current vice president of FemCAT and a key figure within the organization, had been mentioned as a possible successor to Guixà. A dinner with the president of the Generalitat was planned after the assembly, but it will ultimately not take place due to Salvador Illa's hospitalization this weekend.

The consensus

FemCAT's main governing body is its board of trustees. It meets quarterly and is responsible for all decisions affecting the foundation, from its strategy to its activities and management. According to the institution's bylaws, the board of trustees should be renewed every three years, but it is common practice to renew it every two years with the rotation of approximately one-third of its members, coinciding with the appointment of a new president (terms are two-year). Benet will be, barring any surprises, the tenth president of FemCAT, an organization founded in 2004, whose first visible leader was Joaquim Boixareu (Irestal Group). Typically, nominations for FemCAT are discussed internally between the board of trustees and honorary trustees (former presidents), and subsequently, a meeting is held that all members can attend. It is at this meeting that the appointment takes place: this year it will be on January 22nd in Arenys. Thus, the incoming president is generally a consensus candidate, and, according to several sources, "it has never happened that the name proposed to the assembly is not accepted." Once their term has expired, a president cannot be re-elected, but they can be appointed honorary patron, a position that grants them the right to speak and vote in this body. Well-known figures from the business world have served as president of FemCAT, such as Oriol Guixà (La Farga), David Marín (Inacceso Geotécnica), Elena Massot (Vertix), Pau Relat (MAT Holding and president of Fira de Barcelona), Ramon Carbonell (Bonvent), Miquel Martí (Moventia), Carles Sumario, and Joaquim Boixareu (Irestal Group).