Busy week in the offices of large Catalan and Spanish companies. While last week the Catalan perfume company Puig restructured its leadership, this week it was Endesa's turn, which will have a new CEO from April, and Criteria, which has restructured its board. The IEF will also have a new president, this time Catalan, for a period of two years. And the Catalan telecom company Parlem regains Pérez-Mas as CEO amidst disputes with Avatel. These are the most notable hires of the week.

A few months ago, the global financial sector began to show signs of concern, especially in the United States, due to the collapse of First Brands, Tricolor Holdings, and the credit fraud cases of regional banks Zions Bancorporation and Western Alliance. Credit panic began to set in in the markets, also on the Old Continent, with stock market declines contagious from Wall Street. Just a few days ago, the bankruptcy of the British mortgage broker MFS (Markets Financial Solutions) also splashed several lending entities, including Barclays and Banco Santander, with a millionaire credit exposure.

A plot twist at the Catalan telecommunications company Parlem. The company's CEO, Xavier Capellades, has resigned, and Parlem's president and founder, Ernest Pérez-Mas, will resume executive functions and replace him. This change—which the company says is for personal reasons and by mutual agreement—comes amidst negotiations with Avatel for a possible merger, a preliminary agreement that was made public in December and was currently undergoing due diligence.due diligenceSources close to the negotiations explained to ARA that the talks with Inveready—Avatel's main shareholder, with approximately 50% of the capital—had become "complicated," as the initial agreement stipulated that Hablem would acquire Avatel's infrastructure and clients in exchange for Hablem's shares. This arrangement was not to everyone's liking. Back to the origin

Xavier Capellades obtained the position of CEO of the telecom in June 2024, but had already been part of Parlem's management team since 2023. Furthermore, although Ernest Pérez-Mas had stepped down from top executive roles, he is "very involved" in the negotiations with Avatel, and it is "normal that he wants to lead this process again," as.

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The board of directors of the Institute for Family Business (IEF) will propose Eloi Planes, president of the Catalan company Fluidra, as its successor at Wednesday's assembly, according to information obtained by ARA. Currently, the IEF is chaired by Ignacio Rivera, president of Corporación Hijos de Rivera, whose term expires in 2026. However, the appointment must be approved by the IEF members' assembly—to be held in Barcelona—the IEF's highest decision-making body, which will meet in May. Typically, the candidate proposed by the board is approved unanimously at the assembly, so it is highly likely that Planes will become the institution's seventeenth president. Planes, president of the Catalan swimming pool giant Fluidra, is currently a member of the IEF board and has long been considered a possible successor to Rivera at the head of the association. Rivera assumed the presidency of the organization in May 2024, succeeding Andrés Sendagorta, president of Sener. The terms stipulated for the presidency of the IEF are two years and non-renewable, according to the institution's statutes, and outgoing presidents generally join the board as members.

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The Catalan studio Lapso Studios, dedicated to fitness and specialized in cycling and classes of I closedLapso has announced its integration into Commando Studios, the Mexican sports giant. Founded in 2021 in Barcelona, ​​Lapso has managed in four years to position itself as one of the leading brands in the field. fitness boutique in Catalonia. With this operation, Lapso Studios "begins a new stage of growth alongside one of the major groups in the sector, which will allow it to continue driving its expansion nationwide," the company states. Its founders, Eugenia Llopart and Javier Herrarte, will remain with the company.

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Changes at the top of Puig. Its executive chairman, Marc Puig, will step down as CEO of the Catalan perfume and beauty company, and will be replaced by José Manuel Albesa, currently the company's deputy CEO. Meanwhile, the outgoing chairman of the private association Barcelona Global has proposed investor Josep Lluís Sanfeliu as his successor, a name that must be ratified by the members in June. There are also changes at Ysios Capital – co-founded by Sanfeliu – Marlex, and CIM Tax & Legal. These are the most notable appointments of the week.

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Over the last decade, the technology sector has experienced a boom in Software as a Service (SaaS), which became one of the leaders of digital transformation in the business world. This cloud-based software, with user subscription programs and employee interfaces, largely defined how SMEs should approach their digital transformation. Traditional SaaS marked a turning point, especially for business cost management, particularly in the area of ​​human resources. However, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), and especially AI-powered autonomous agents, has changed the rules of the game and led to a situation that the ecosystem has dubbed as SaaSpocalypseOr the SaaS apocalypse. It's not so much the end of SaaS as a reinvention of the sector, which is realizing that it won't thrive unless it shifts towards an agentive version—that is, integrating agentive AI. The model now requires autonomous agents capable of executing end-to-end workflows with human oversight, but with a degree of autonomy. An example of this shift is the Catalan company Nodus, an operational architecture that allows for the structural deployment, governance, and scaling of digital workers within a company, preventing the fragmentation that arises when AI is implemented in a scattered way. Founded in Catalonia, the company began developing its technology two years ago and will be working with clients by 2025, aiming to integrate AI into the operations of SMEs to help them grow in an integrated manner.

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BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres is optimistic about the bank's growth despite the current global climate of geopolitical uncertainty. "Despite the current uncertain environment marked by trade tensions and armed conflicts, but also by great opportunities, the bank faces this context with confidence," Torres stated at the annual general meeting of shareholders held this Friday in Bilbao. In fact, the bank's chairman affirmed that they expect to continue growing faster than their competitors and to lead the era of artificial intelligence—"as we have done until now," he said—despite exposure to potentially volatile markets, such as Turkey, which accounts for 7% of their business, and Mexico, which in 2025 represented 45.4%.

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Caixa Ingenieros earned €26.5 million in 2025, an 11% increase, achieving record results for the third consecutive year. However, the global context of uncertainty has also affected the bank's accounts: "Interest rates have been falling, and that has affected us. We are a bank, and therefore we are not immune to what is happening in the market. Our scenario for 2026 is for interest rates to remain at the closing rate, which we have offset with expenses," stated the bank's CEO, Juanjo Llopis, during the results presentation this Tuesday. These results were the first of a full year with Llopis as CEO, who took over from Joan Cavallé at the beginning of the year. "We have achieved a new record result for the bank, which makes us very proud and allows us to face the future with strength and confidence," Llopis explained. Business volume rose to €9.269 billion, an 8% year-on-year increase; net interest income fell 2.8% to €74.1 million in a context of declining interest rates; and gross income declined 0.66% to €122.4 million, according to the results published Tuesday by the cooperative group. The year ended with 220,080 members, a 1.7% increase, representing an additional 4,000 members in absolute terms. "We are a community-focused bank, and that's what drives our membership growth. We've gone from having 31 company-owned branches to just two shared ones," the group explained. Of the 33 branches, 10 are in Barcelona, ​​12 in the rest of Catalonia, and 11 in the rest of Spain. Credit investment increased by 5.1% to €2.079 billion, with the majority going to personal loans (€1.482 billion, up 2.5%). Business lending rose by 12.4% to €597 million. New loan originations increased by 10% to €626 million. Llopis explained that they encountered a "particularly competitive" market in this sector, in a year in which banks increased mortgage lending. Forecasts for 2026

"Looking ahead to 2026, uncertainties persist, and we are in a period of high volatility, mainly due to geopolitical tensions, wars, tariffs, the focus on taxation, and sovereign debt markets; but everything will depend on how long the conflict with Iran lasts," he noted. In fact, the CEO has anticipated a possible interest rate hike should the conflict in the Middle East drag on. This will be the year that culminates the group's current strategic plan, the so-called 'Transform 2026 Plan'. The credit union expects to close the year with around 230,000 members and a business volume of approximately €10 billion. The institution also forecasts that profitability (ROE) will fall to 9.35% and the non-performing loan ratio to 2.4%.

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Factorial, the platform dedicated to AI-powered business operations, announced on Tuesday the launch of the AI ​​Acceleration Fund, a €10 million fund to boost the adoption of these technologies and the digitalization of business operations in European companies. According to CEO Jordi Romero, "the goal is to lower the barrier to entry for AI adoption for SMEs" and facilitate companies' transition from pilot programs to real-world deployments of automation and data usage in areas such as human resources, finance, technology, and operations throughout the entire employee lifecycle: performance, workforce analytics, and planning. The program, operational from Tuesday and with applications open until April 30, has a budget of €10 million structured in two equivalent components. The first tranche, worth €5 million, is allocated as direct cost reductions applied immediately upon signing the contract, without impacting the commitment to the platform. The second tranche, also worth €5 million, is offered as AI credits within the Factorial platform itself, so that companies have additional resources as their transformation program matures. Furthermore, participating companies will have access to a transformation support program that includes training and development webinars, access to events, and thought leadership reports.

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The Government has appointed the president of Enagás as the new president of the UB's social council, and just a few days ago we also explained in theCompanies Vicenç Pedret, a businessman close to Oriol Junqueras, joined Enagás as a board member. Banco Santander will propose a new board member to its shareholders' meeting, scheduled for the end of March, and the Antolín group has appointed Emma Antolín as the company's head. Below are the week's most significant appointments.

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The Mobile World Congress (MWC), as an international event, is always exposed in global turbulenceThis year's edition has been impacted by the war against Iran, resulting in 4,000 fewer delegates compared to previous years. with last yearAttendance reached nearly 105,000 attendees "despite the disruptions to travel worldwide," as explained by the GSMA, the organizer of MWC, in its summary of this year's event. Following the US and Israeli attacks the previous weekend, just days before the Mobile World Congress began, some attendees faced difficulties reaching Barcelona due to the cancellation of numerous flights caused by the closure of Middle Eastern airspace. This affected not only travelers from the Near and Middle East, but also those with layovers, as is the case with many flights originating in Asia. It's worth noting that some of the main companies at this congress (Xiaomi, Huawei, LG, Samsung, and SK Telekom) are Asian. They will likely face similar difficulties returning home. The impact was especially noticeable in the first few hours of the first day, Monday, but it diminished as attendees filled the stands and pavilions of Fira Gran Via. "That's 105,000, a slightly lower figure than last year; therefore, we must assume that there were obviously some visitors who came from certain regions or who were affected by the airspace closure and ultimately couldn't attend," said the CEO of Fira de Barcelona, ​​Constantí Serral. However, Serrallonga assured that they are very "happy" with the results, since anything that involves exceeding 100,000 visitors is a "spectacular figure." Thus concludes the twentieth edition of MWC in Barcelona, ​​which has consolidated itself year after year as the most important trade show held in the Catalan capital. “Twenty years in Barcelona and MWC continues to surprise and exceed expectations. From the beginning, the GSMA and the host city's organizations have shared a common vision: to build something that matters to the world,” reaffirmed GSMA CEO John Hoffman, who praised the infrastructure, ecosystem, and commitment. With 2,900 exhibitors and more than 1,700 speakers, Mobile World Congress revolved around the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, the future of the space economy, and the 6G horizon. This is yet another example of how the event has evolved from the Mecca of mobile phones to become the global showcase for advances in connectivity and new technologies, with 58% of attendees coming from sectors other than mobile.

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As every year, Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital) transforms its Mobile World Congress stand in Hall 6 of the Gran Via Fairgrounds into an immersive experience showcasing several disruptive projects. This year, the major hits They revolve around health and agriculture.

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Tim Berners-Lee is one of the men who has changed the world. Born in London in 1955, he is a computer engineer and also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is known worldwide as the creator of the World Wide Web (www), the revolution that allowed communication between a client and a server for the first time and, in doing so, changed the history of the internet. In a conference at the Talent Arena at the Montjuïc Fair, the space for digital talent promoted by MWCapital alongside Mobile World Congress, Berners-Lee criticized the massive use of addictive algorithms on social media and argued that some countries should ban social networks or phones in response.

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European technological sovereignty has been a hot topic in recent discussions within the technology sector. This was also the case at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which this year offered several conferences dedicated to the issue. Faced with a situation in which the United States and China dominate the technological race and the foundations of the global order are changing, strategic sovereignty is becoming a crucial challenge for governments and industries. And where does Europe stand?

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The Mobile World Congress (MWC) opened its twentieth edition this Monday at the Gran Via Fairgrounds, in a context marked by international tensions, after Israel and the United States attacked Iran early Saturday morning, killing its Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. It was inevitable that the event, which expects to host more than 110,000 attendees over its four days, would be affected by these events, given its status as an international meeting point, as has already happened with other international conflicts it has coincided with, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine just four years ago.

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A flood of millions is coming to Spain to advance the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and expand data center infrastructure. Amazon's Vice President of Legal Affairs, David Zapolsky, announced an increase of €18 billion in planned investment in Spain, bringing the company's total planned investment to €33.7 billion. The company made the announcement at a conference during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, ​​explaining that the investment aims to strengthen data center and AI infrastructure in Aragon, where it has its data centers. The Spanish government was quick to react to the news, which represents Amazon's largest investment outside the United States. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated on social media that this milestone demonstrates that Spain "is a safe bet."

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Following the collapse of Ciudadanos, its founder, Albert Rivera, has made several moves in the private sector. His latest is at Empresas Mágicas de España, a new venture where he will serve as an advisor. Meanwhile, businessman Vicenç Pedret, linked to Oriol Junqueras, will be nominated as a board member of Enagás, and ACAVe will have a new board after elections that gave the victory to the most radical candidate, ousting the status quo. These are the week's most notable appointments.

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The traditional pre-Mobile dinner, with King Felipe VI and the country's main political and business personalities, was held this Sunday evening at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) to kick off the most important technology and connectivity congress, the Mobile World Congress (MWC). This year, the congress celebrates its twentieth edition in Barcelona, from this Monday until Thursday, March 5th. Long gone are the meetings where the news was the (non-)greeting between the Catalan government and the monarchy; now the talk is of international geopolitics.

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The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is coming of age in Barcelona. This year's edition, which begins tomorrow, Monday, March 2nd, and runs until midday on Thursday, will be the twentieth edition of the Mobile World Congress in the Catalan capital; two decades of a congress that began as the mecca of mobile phones and has ended up becoming the global showcase for advances in connectivity and new technologies. Under the theme "The IQ era," the event will revolve around the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, the future of the space economy, and the horizon of 6G, among many other topics related to the so-called deep techDeep technologies.

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