Aragonès reinvents himself at university: he pilots economic conferences in Vic

BarcelonaIn September, Pere Aragonès announced that he was renouncing his salary as ex-president to take over the family's hotel chain. At that time, he also explained that he would combine this task with his doctoral thesis at the University of Barcelona and also with teaching at the University of Vic.

At this latter university, Aragonès taught classes in economic history during the first semester. The subject has now ended, but the former president of the Generalitat has maintained his connection with the center to organize, starting this Monday, conferences on the economy titled The Catalan economy in a fractured world, conferences that aim to analyze the role that the Catalan economy can play in the world and that will culminate in a debate between Aragonès and the former Basque lehendakari Íñigo Urkullu, on May 18, which will be moderated by the director of ARA, Esther Vera.

Aragonès lost the presidency of the Generalitat in 2024 and became the youngest ex-president in democracy. The former ERC leader decided to redirect his professional career and, in addition to his business work at the helm of Golden Hotels, he also wanted to dedicate himself to the academic side. He will now transform the teaching work he has carried out in recent months at the University of Vic into a more debate-oriented and public outreach activity open to everyone.

Thus, over the next two months, he will lead conferences at the University of Vic that aim to "map for companies and academics" the current state of the Catalan economy in a "changing geopolitical context", explains former president Aragonès to ARA. "We also want to explain how territories can move in this world," he adds. The former president himself will be in charge of moderating all the events, except the last one, at which he will be a speaker along with Urkullu.

"We wanted to combine people who brought a more Catalan vision and others with a more European vision, to see what opportunities we have," points out Aragonès. Thus, for example, this Monday's conference is dedicated to talking about population, energy, and territory, and will be attended by the director of the Center for Demographic Studies, Albert Esteve, and the director of the Catalan Institute of Energy, Anna Camp, but also the researcher from Harvard University and CEO of Aretian and City Science, Ramon Gras, to bring the more international vision. These conferences will also address other topics such as industrial policy, economic diversification, and technological and financial changes.