Tomorrow I will start a new journey as Deputy CEO of the @MobileWorldCapitalBarcelona Foundation. I´m very happy with the opportunity to develop a good transition and succession the next coming months with @Francesc Fajula, that will take the lead of this excellent organization, sure he will be able to make a successful and positive development forward of this magic public private alliance.

I´m plenty of gratitude for the opportunity I´ve had this five years as public servant and the amazing support I´ve got from all the ecosystem, board members, partners, employees and friends, to make a positive contribution to the city and the country with one the largest technology events in our planet, MWC Barcelona, driving at the same time initiatives to generate economic and social impact during all the year in Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, with global partnership initiatives.

When I joined on November 2017, we had 4YFN as the flagship program, representing 80% of the private incomes and 40% of the headcount in the foundation, with the commitment to transfer it to GSMA the following months, and the challenge was to re-invent a significant part of the foundation. GSMA has embraced 4YFN as flagship event in all MWCs and 4YFN is today a clear legacy in the metropolitan area of Barcelona helping us to make a major jump during the last five years in the startup ecosystem, connecting startups with investors and corporations, contributing to increase the number of startups from 600 to 1.900 and the rounds of investments & capital raises from 350M€ to more than 1.500M€ during this period.

During these five years we´ve focused most of our innovation efforts on the Deep Tech & Tech Transfer Venture Builder program “The Collider” helping to transfer to our society the excellence we´ve in research and technology centers, combining scientific and entrepreneurial talent. In these five years we´ve created 20 hot startups, investing 600K€, attracting 6M€ of private investment, generating more than 100 jobs (20 of them in research centers), with a value of the portfolio bigger than 20M€, that includes some of the hottest and best rewarded startups in Southern Europe by startups rewards as SantanderX, Seedrocket and Emprendedores XXI.

We´ve focused this five years on transparency, openness, and driving the orchestration of complex alliances, starting with a circle of confidence with experts from the ecosystem, that inspired us to create the Barcelona Digital Talent alliance, the launch of an strategy leading committee with executives from the private corporations, most of them members of our board, that have helped to attract more than 5M€ of private funds during this period, increasing the private presence not just in the financials but also in the governance of the foundation.

The Barcelona Digital Talent alliance is now one of our major pillars, that has contributed to provide training to more than 1.200 professionals last year and is also driving the aspirational Barcelona Inclusive Coding alliance, with the objective to provide training and jobs the next coming 10 years to more than 10.000 people from the third sector, people with difficult economic situations that needs training and job opportunities. Large corporations as Pepsico, Bayer and Schneider have decided recently to launch their global digital hubs in Barcelona because the metropolitan area has a solid digital talent plan thanks to this alliance.

With the support of our board, we´ve created during this period two major programs that didn´t exist in 2017, the Intelligent Connectivity and Digital Future Society. Intelligent Connectivity is the technology pillar of the foundation, driving alliances as 5GBarcelona and 5GCatalonia and the National Observatory of 5G in Spain, developing use cases and projects as the first 5G surgery online in healthcare in our planet, that was one of the top use cases with more impact last MWC Barcelona 2019, or the holograms 5G cabin, that was between the top five use cases last MWC Barcelona 2021, and had also recently presence at the Cruïlla music festival.

Digital Future Society, that is part today of the key initiatives of the Digital Agenda of Spain 2025, is a global international program, driving partnerships with more than 150 entities and stakeholders from around the world, public and private, with the objective to develop a more ethic, sustainable and inclusive use of the technology in our planet to improve people´s lives. The Mobile Week program, included in Digital Future Society, is the digital inclusion engine of DFS, and has contributed to provide free training, helping to develop digital skills to more than 70.000 citizens just last year in Spain.

Our focus on people and talent has helped us to improve the climate in the foundation, positioning our team between the top at the Best Place to Work rankings and we´ve now a solid and robust leadership team, with an effective internal use of technology, that has contributed to our productivity, and a culture oriented to impact on economic and social KPIs.

Extremely happy that all these initiatives have contributed, as a small grain of sand, to generate good conditions and trust for the renewal of the agreement with GSMA, that will extend MWC Barcelona as the largest global technology event till 2030, reinforcing the position of Barcelona as the global Mobile World Capital.

From tomorrow, I´ll have more time for boards, advisory boards and for teaching, that is one of my passions, improving also my work life balance.

Thanks to @Jordi Marti and @Constanti Serrallonga, members of our board, that gave me opportunity to join this project, with the support of @Therese Jamaa and @Gloria Placer, in 2017. Thanks to all our board members for their support during this period, specially to @Jose Maria Lasalle, who gave us his confidence to drive Digital Future Society and the National Observatory of 5G, to @Jordi Puignero, who gave us his support and guidance to drive the Intelligent Connectivity pillar with 5GBarcelona and 5GCatalonia, to @Angels Chacon, who did her bet for The Collider as key program within the strategic plan of research and economic development in Catalonia, to @John Hoffman who gave us the opportunity for The Collider to drive the venture builder initiative within PuzzleX, and to the amazing leadership team of the foundation I´ve had the honor to lead, @Cristina Colom, @Oscar Sala, @Eduard Martin, @Abel Gomez and @Jordi Arrufi, with their support and efforts we´ve been able to develop a solid legacy and magic initiatives during this five years. Has been an absolute pleasure to work with all of you, and I´m sure that with all our support and help @Francecs Fajula will be able to increase the impact and the legacy in the near future.

Many thanks also to all of you, partners, friends, stakeholders of the ecosystem, that have contributed and helped me these five years in this magic journey leaving this legacy to our city, our country and globally!