Vilarrubí, a businessman with all his senses
BarcelonaCarlos Vilarrubí y Carrió (Barcelona, 1954), death this morningIt could be said that he knew how to make excellent use of all his senses. Taste, of course, as president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition since 2016. He also knew how to surround himself with the most knowledgeable people, such as chef Carme Ruscalleda, or his vice president, Joan Font, among others. Given his aptitude for economics, he was able to interpret the immense potential of gastronomic activity in Catalonia. Taste and sight.
But these weren't the only senses he had well developed. Beyond touch, due to the capacity for dialogue and negotiation that are said to have been part of his character, smell was also one of his defining traits, especially when he sensed the potential of Jordi Pujol, when the latter was just beginning his political career and while he was still at Banca Catalana. This gave Vilarrubí the impetus to later become one of the so-called yuppiesYoung talents associated with Pujol's CiU party in the 1980s.
His keen sense of smell also helped him detect suspicious activity in the original PortAventura project, spearheaded by Javier de la Rosa, who then hired him as CEO. He combined this skill with another, less physical but equally important one: the intuition to resign and sever ties with the company. Eventually, De la Rosa, initially hailed by Pujol's government as a model businessman, ended up in prison.
In addition to his sight and sense of smell, he also used his ears. Once in the Generalitat (the Catalan government), he was one of the driving forces behind the current Catalan radio ecosystem with Catalunya Ràdio and RAC1. And he returned to the scene with both sight and smell when the President of the Generalitat entrusted him with creating the Autonomous Entity for Games and Betting (EAJA), where he innovated with the launch of the first online lottery, 6/49. All of this placed Vilarrubí among the leading figures of the Catalan elite, the so-called civil society. In addition to public and private positions in banking and finance, he was part of institutions such as Fira de Barcelona, Foment del Treball, and also served as vice-president of FC Barcelona.