PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota and bachelor’s degree from Universitat de Barcelona. She is director of the Barcelona GSE, professor in Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and associate researcher of the Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI). She has been associate professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1987-90), and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1985-87). Her research has focused in studying the impact of public investment on economic growth, and in the analysis of how different tax structures and fiscal federalism models influence economic growth, the distribution of resources and the economic wellbeing. She is a member of the board of trustees of Repsol since 2019 and has been member of the board of Banc Sabadell (2007-2020), Enagas (2006-2014) and Vueling (2007-2009). She is a member of the Advisory Board for Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Economics Affairs and Digital Transformation.

Expert on cities and economic promotion. CEO of Barcelona Global from 2011 to 2022, and previous experience as CEO of economic development for the city of Barcelona and CEO of Barcelona Activa. He is and has been an advisor of several cities like NY, Oslo, Torino or London. Secretary of the International Advisory Board of the Smart City World Expo and Congress.

Professor of Economics at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (currently Emeritus). He also taught at Harvard University and at University of California, Berkeley. He served as General Secretary of the European Research Council (2009-2010) and Minister of Economy and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia (2010-2015). He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and was its President in 1993. He was elected Foreign Associate to the US National Academy of Sciences, Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association and member of the Academia Europaea. He was Sloan Fellow (1978-1980) and Guggenheim Fellow (1985-1986). He chaired the European Economic Association (2006). He was awarded several prizes in Economics and holds several Honoris Causa Doctorates. He was co-author of the graduate textbook Microeconomic Theory (1994), and has co-authored numerous other works in the field.

Economista por la UB, con formación diversa de máster en gestión inmobiliaria por UB y URL. Es socio fundador de Crea Inversión y Prisma Capital, así como presidente de Guinot Prunera. Su trayectoria profesional le ha llevado a dirigir y trabajar en empresas de servicios financieros, de inversión e inmobiliarias. Tiene experiencia trabajando tanto en multinacionales como en empresas familiares o emprendiendo en sus proyectos personales. Así mismo, durante 7 años fue Director General de Promoción Económica de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Siempre ha combinado su actividad profesional con el trabajo en entidades sin afán de lucro en el terreno de la cultura, la salud y el impacto social.

Cristina H. Valiñani is the Projects Director at Barcelona Global. Previously, as the Director of the Department for International Trade at the British Consulate-General in Barcelona, she led the trade and investment team of the UK Government for Catalonia, Aragon, Balearic Islands and Andorra for ten years. She also held various positions in business strategy and product management in Vodafone, Orange and Ericsson in several European locations. Cristina is a telecommunications engineer and she holds an Executive MBA by the IE Business School (Instituto de Empresa) and postgraduate education in project management and production management in manufacturing.