The 14 notables who will advise the Government to opt for European funds

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a Generalitat has already named the fourteen notables who will be part of the new advisory committee Catalunya-Next Generation EU (Conext CAT-EU), whose main mission is to help the Government identify the projects that should apply for resources from the macro-fund for recovery and reactivation launched by the European Union to address the consequences of the pandemic.

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These are eight men and six women with professional careers of recognized prestige and experience in the management of large projects, European affairs, public policies, and the business sector. The committee, which held its first meeting yesterday, is chaired by the Vice President of the Government, Pere Aragonès, and has Ramon Tremosa, Minister of Business and Knowledge, as its vice president.

Those chosen to be part of the advisory committee are Oriol Altisench, Oriol Bota, Maria Buhigas, Joaquim Coello, Adelina Comas, Therese Jamaa, Guillem López-Casasnovas, Miquel Martí, Andreu Mas-Colell, Miquel Puig, Mar Reguant, Francesc Reguant, Carme Trilla, and Montse Vendrell.

According to Aragonès, Catalonia "has the capacity, strength, and energy to execute projects" of great economic and social impact that can be financed by European reconstruction funds, estimated at 750,000 million euros. To select the projects that will apply for these resources, the Conext CAT-EU will be based on the economic reactivation plan of nearly 32,000 million euros that the Generalitat presented in July as a response to the Covid-19 crisis. The idea is for these experts to help translate all the objectives outlined in that plan into concrete projects and also to select parallel initiatives put forward by other social, economic, and business actors in Catalonia.

WHO'S WHO IN THE COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS

1. Oriol Altisench. He is the dean of the Col·legi d'Enginyers de Camins, Canals i Ports de Catalunya, with extensive experience in public urban planning and infrastructure projects. Currently, he is an executive at the Barcelona municipal public company Bimsa, where he directs the area of strategic mobility actions and coordinates the project for connecting the tram networks along Diagonal.
2. Oriol Bota. He is the director of the social work of Sant Joan de Déu, as well as a trustee of the Fundació Probitas and a member of the financial services cooperative Coop57. Previously, he was linked to Grup Cultura 03 and Col·lectiu Ronda.
3. Maria Buhigas. Architect at the firm Urban Facts and professor at the UAB, she is an expert in urban planning and for thirteen years was director of urban strategy at the public agency Barcelona Regional. Until September, she was an ERC councilor in the Barcelona City Council.

   

4. Joaquim Coello. A naval engineer by training, he has extensive experience in the business, academic, and social sectors. He was president of the Port de Barcelona and of the Applus+ certification group, in addition to having been CEO of ITP and Gamesa Eólica and a director of multiple companies. He was also president of the Consell Social de la UB and has been part of the boards of foundations such as the Palau de la Música, FemCat, Fundació Pasqual Maragall, and Fundació Carulla.
5. Adelina Comas. Researcher at the Care Policy Evaluation Center of the London School of Economics and co-director of the STRiDE program for the development of national dementia plans, her mission focuses on evaluating health and social protection systems to respond to the population's aging process. She is an expert in Covid-19 and has been a consultant for the WHO.
6. Therese Jamaa. She is the general director of GSMA, the association that organizes the MWC. The technology expert had worked at Qualcomm and companies such as Vodafone and Sema Group.

   

7. Guillem López-Casasnovas. Professor of Economics at UPF and director of the Centre de Recerca en Economia i Salut (Cres-UPF). An expert in the healthcare system and fiscal balances, he has been linked to various universities and was a director of the Bank of Spain, in addition to having advised the WHO and been part of multiple advisory committees and councils such as CAREC and CASOST (Catalan healthcare system).

   

8. Miquel Martí. He is the general director of Barcelona Tech City, the large unifying center of Barcelona's startup ecosystem.

   

9. Andreu Mas-Colell. Doctor in Economics from the University of Minnesota, he was Minister of Economy and previously Minister of Universities of the Generalitat, although the bulk of his career had been developed earlier in the United States, as a full professor and professor of Economics at Harvard and the University of California. He has published more than a hundred research papers and presided over the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
10. Miquel Puig. Doctor in Economics and current ERC councilor in the Barcelona City Council. He is also general director of the Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya and held various positions in the Generalitat, where he was general director of Industry and Commissioner for the Information Society. He also held the general management of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA) and in the private sector directed Abertis' airport subsidiary.
11. Mar Reguant. Doctor in Economics from MIT and full professor at Northwestern University. She is an expert in electricity markets and environmental regulation and has received multiple awards and distinctions for her research, in addition to being recognized as the best European environmental economist under 40.
12. Francesc Reguant. He is the president of the agri-food economy commission of the Col·legi d'Economistes and director of ObeAlimentària. He has worked at IRTA and the Department of Agriculture and coordinated the environmental impact study of the Segarra-Garrigues canal.

    

13. Carme Trilla. Economist with extensive experience in the social housing sector and current president of the Fundació Hàbitat3, which manages more than 600 rental homes and promoted by the Taula del Tercer Sector Social de Catalunya. She was general director of Housing of the Generalitat, has collaborated with Càritas Barcelona, is an advisor to the Pla de Barris of the Catalan capital and also presides over the Observatori Metropolità de l'Habitatge.

    

14. Montse Vendrell. She is the president of the Consell Social de la UPF, vice-president of the Fundació Pasqual Maragall and partner of the biotechnology investment fund Alta Life Sciences. She was director of Biocat, the Barcelona Science Park and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology.