Jaume Guardiola becomes president of the Cercle d'Economia with 70% of the votes

The former CEO of Banco Sabadell, Jaume Guardiola, was proclaimed this Tuesday as the new president of the Cercle d'Economia with 70.8% of the votes, defeating also candidate Rosa Cañadas. In the elections, the first in the institution's history with more than one candidate, 985 members participated, that is, 76.1% of the 1,200 members with voting rights. In total, the entity is made up of 1,300 people.

The new president of the Cercle d'Economia, who replaces executive Javier Faus in the position, hopes "to live up to the expectations that many members have set" after an electoral process "markedly media-driven," he assured in a press conference after his designation.

Guardiola insisted that "the Cercle is a very important legacy" that must be preserved and that he hopes, once his three-year term ends, that the entity's members "consider that I have honored that legacy and, if I can, also enlarged it."

He also mentioned the role that the entity must play before Catalan society. "The Cercle has a very important role before Catalan society. This country, as Vicens Vives used to say, is at a moment of straightening out. The Cercle is an institution with the intellectual rigor and prestige to help and contribute to straightening it out, and my board will do everything possible to achieve it," he reasoned.

Regarding his electoral rival, Rosa Cañadas, president of Trea Capital and the Tanja Foundation, the financier announced that he will meet with her and the members who formed her candidacy to "capture their sensibilities" and perceive "the spirit of the entire collective of associates."

Guardiola, considered the continuity candidate of the outgoing board led by executive Javier Faus, started as the clear favorite, as he gathered 558 endorsements to present his candidacy, far exceeding the 50 needed to run in the elections, while Cañadas presented 216. Guardiola's list includes 16 former board members, while four are new additions, with a significant weight of large corporations and a balance between men and women.

With a symbolic act, the handover of the gavel that the president of the Cercle uses in the entity's internal meetings by the outgoing president, Jaume Guardiola has taken office. His predecessor thanked all the members, "the great asset of the entity," he specified, for the support he received during his mandate, in which "difficult decisions were made, such as the transfer of the annual meeting from Sitges to Barcelona, and opinion notes related to delicate aspects were issued." "Now the issue of the airport remains pending," Faus told the new president, "the great pending issue of Barcelona."

A graduate in Law from the University of Barcelona and in Business Sciences and MBA from Esade, the former banker Jaume Guardiola (Barcelona, 1957) left Banco Sabadell last year after 14 years as CEO and a long career in the financial sector; from his beginnings in the management of Banca Catalana to various positions at BBVA. At Banco Sabadell, where he formed a tandem with its president Josep Oliu, Guardiola led the bank's growth, especially with acquisitions such as those of CAM and Caixa Penedès, Banco Guipuzcoano and the English entity TSB.