The top management of Catalan entrepreneurship bids farewell to Josep Vilarasau

BarcelonaThe cream of the Catalan economic and business world made an appearance this Thursday at midday at the funeral of Josep Vilarasau, president of La Caixa for 27 years who died this Tuesday, which took place at the Sant Gervasi funeral home, in the upper part of Barcelona. Among the most distinguished attendees, however, was the sister of King Felipe VI, Cristina de Borbón, who held various positions in the Obra Social de La Caixa for 26 years.

As often happens with the deaths of prominent businessmen, the event, which was private, was a small who's who of the Catalan establishment. Among those present were the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, and the former President of the Generalitat, José Montilla, while Jordi Pujol —with whom he had a turbulent relationship— passed through the chapel of rest on Wednesday, the same day as the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, representing the Catalan Government, as Salvador Illa is on an official trip to Singapore. However, neither Pere Aragonès nor Artur Mas, promoter of the law that forced Vilarasau to leave the presidency of La Caixa in 2012, were present.

In the business sphere, as expected, the top brass of La Caixa has traveled to the Sant Gervasi funeral home, located on the slope of Collserola in an ideal location to observe at its feet some of the group's emblematic buildings in the capital: CosmoCaixa and the new CaixaResearch research center, about 200 meters away, and beyond them the two black towers of CaixaBank, on Diagonal. Isidre Fainé, current president of the La Caixa Foundation, was one of the most prominent names, accompanied by the president and CEO of CaixaBank, Tomás Muniesa and Gonzalo Gortázar.

Salvador Alemany, president of Abertis and the Liceu board, also attended the funeral, as did Josep Sánchez Llibre, president of Foment del Treball, an employers' association with close ties to La Caixa. Also present were the president of the Cercle d'Economia, Teresa Garcia Milà, and Maite Barrera, former president of Barcelona Global and, since April, a member of the board of the La Caixa Foundation.

The ceremony was entirely secular and focused on Vilarasau's personal life. In fact, only some of the children and grandchildren of the former president of La Caixa spoke. In one of the speeches, one of the sons also praised his mother and Vilarasau's wife, the collector and art expert Lola Mitjans, who is also the daughter of Francesc Mitjans, a renowned architect, responsible for, among other works, the Camp Nou stadium and the Atlantic Bank tower, in Barcelona's Eixample (ironically, today owned by Banc Sabadell).

Despite the non-denominational nature of the funeral, the deceased's obituary did have a religious component, with a quote – in Latin – from the book of the prophet Isaiah: "The valleys will be raised / the mountains and hills will be lowered / the rough terrain will be a plain / and the mountain range, a wide valley". A ceremony that one of the attendees described as "special", like "he was too".