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Barcelona is pushing hard to become one of the main leaders in terms of innovation in Europe. A big variety of activities and projects are aimed to put the light on the city and label it as Technology and Innovation hub of Europe. Organisations like ICF, ACCIÓ, Barcelona Activa, Barcelona Tech city, Antai, Biz Barcelona, Startup Grind, Founder Institute, Startupbootcamp, and many others, are striving to bring value and quality to the innovation ecosystem in the region of Catalonia and Barcelona. We show you here a list of 30 Barcelona influencers when it comes to technology and innovation.
Top 30 Barcelona influencers shaping innovation in business
1. Aleix Valls
The first one on our list of Barcelona influencers is the ex CEO of the Mobile World Capital, Aleix Valls, is currently known for being CEO and CoFounder at Liquid Co. Organisation that helps other companies to adapt and rebuild their structure in order to adapt them to the Digital Age.
2. Miquel Martí
The second one on the list of Barcelona influencers is Miquel Martí – CEO of Barcelona Tech City, a private organization that reunites different startups from this influencer list and organizations from the digital business sector and promotes the Barcelona tech scene to the world. As for his previous responsibilities: he was head of the Barcelona-based Research, Development and Technological Innovation Accreditation Agency ( AIDIT – property of technical universities of Catalonia and Madrid), director of B·DEBATE International Center for Scientific Debate Barcelona (Biocat and “la Caixa Foundation” initiative) and many more.
3. Dídac Lee
The third one on the list of Brcelona influncers is Dídac Lee. He is one of the most known tech investors from this influencer list in Barcelona. Starting in 1992 with his education on computer engineering at UPC, he continued growing with three extra programs such as: Entrepreneur Program at Cambridge, IESE Business School and University of California, Haas School of Business. Moving towards the professional field, he became one of the board member of the organisation Barcelona Tech city, Co-Founder and Board Member of Tradeinn – online store specialized in sport equipment, board member of Futbol Club Barcelona, where he started digitization process. Far from done, he founded many startups and two more organisations and became board member there: Inspirit – technology group representing several companies and helping them to grow and achieve success and Galdana Ventures – Venture capital funds investing in top tier firms in the USA, Asia, Israel and Europe. He has received several awards, including: Best European Startup Mentor Award by Founder Institute, one of 20 most influential entrepreneurs under 40, Selected by WIRED magazine as one of the Top 100 European Digital Influencers, etc.
Helena is a serial entrepreneur on tech startups, investor and member of the board on innovative companies. Now, she is the co-founder and CEO of B-Wom. Here she combines her passion for technology with the possibility to positively impact on women’s health. Prior to that, she lead Abiquo with the entrepreneurial team, establishing operations in US, UK & Spain and being Board Director at the Holding in USA. She also received trainings through Executive Programs (UCLA, IESE, HARVARD) focused on how Board Directors. She is now independent board director on a Fund of Funds of Venture Capital. Helena is always willing to share and contribute. She belongs to the Governing Board of associations such as BarcelonaTechCity and Esade Alumni Entrepreneurship, and is speaker in tech events.
5. Gerard Olive
Gerard co-founded Antai Venture Builder and since then he co-founded multiple companies with international presence like Wallapop,CornerJob, Deliberry, Shoppiday, Shopery, Glovo, BePretty, Mascoteros, Marmota, Havet, Prontopiso, Medox or Trendier, etc.
Also, he founded BeRepublic, the leading strategic consulting firm specialized in digital businesses in Southern Europe and Latam. He co-founded BeAgency, a full-service interactive marketing agency firm with offices in Barcelona and Madrid. And he is an active member of the board of Barcelona Tech City.
The list is long, let’s continue, he is a co-founder and mentor of Conector Startup Accelerator and gives speeches in IESE Business School, URL Blanquerna, Elisava, ICEMD, ESIC, South Summit and IED Barcelona.
Miguel is a co-Founder of Antai Venture Builder, the leading online and mobile venture builder in Southern Europe and an important part of this influencer list. He is an expert in creating new business models, selecting the best talent and co-founding the new ventures. Through Antai he co-founded multiple ventures with international presence such us Wallapop, CornerJob, Glovo, Carnovo, Prontopiso, Deliberry, Shoppiday, Shopery, BePretty and others. Also he is a Chairman of the cluster Barcelona Tech City.
Also, he is a board member of Barcelona Global, a private non-profit platform made up of business leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs committed to Barcelona and its future.
Miguel is a co-founder and mentor of Conector Startup Accelerator, active angel investor. And in 2014 he was nominated as the Best Catalan Entrepreneur by The Catalan Government Awards.
7. Carlota Pi
Carlota Pi Amoros is an entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and Executive Marketing Officer at HolaLuz.com and holds an Executive MBA from IESE Business School. She regularly gives speeches in top tech events in Barcelona.
8. Miguel Valls
Miguel Valls is known for being one of the best, most experienced investors and business analysis from this influencer list. He is the Board director in Barcelona tech city. Also, he founded three important venture investors firms, that play crucial role in Barcelona startup scene.
Gemma is one of the most known women in tech in Barcelona. She is one of the Founders and CEO of Deliberry, one of the companies founded by Antai. Deliberry has success for being one of the first online supermarket with the option of delivered in less than 1h. Gemma has over 12 years of experience in e-commerce and has taken part in Startups like Atrapalo, Emagister and LetsBonus from Sales department all the way to product management.
Alex was very known in Barcelona since he was very young. At age 13 he built a digital platform for students for sharing and organising their homework. Later when he turned 17 he was named the CTO of Sharge, a sharing-economy platform of charging-stations for electric car users that’s partnered with Audi. Along with 2 more Founders Pol Baladas and Joan Viladomat he started a new business called FileNation a platform that allows you to send files all around the world using P2P technology called IPFS. He is a famous TED Speaker and was featured in Forbes as 30 under 30
11. Gina Tost
Gina is one Journalist with a different range of experience such as Mobile, Technology, Startups and Video Games. She founded famous App promotion platform – Geenapp. And she was featured on Wired Magazine as one of the 100 Best Startups of 2015 and on The Hundert Magazine as “One of the 100 Best Female Founders Europe”. Also, she gives classes in Tecnocampus de Mataró, UPC and La Salle.
12. Oscar Pierre
You might think about Oscar Pierre and you are right! Oscar is Co-Founder and CEO of Glovo a very successful startup based in Barcelona. Startup allows anyone to get pretty much anything at anytime. It is a platform that connects customers with couriers from the owners of restaurants to shops. Basically they can bring you everything you need, up to the key you left at house. Before starting it, he founded other startups like FUO Concept and Zikkomo. As for the studies, he studied in UPC and Georgia Institute of Technology in Aerospace Engineering.
13. Cesar Velasco
Cesar has worked as Epidemiologist. He is a member of World Health Organisation, European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, etc. He is a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health with a focus on Global Health and Innovation. He is very interested in social projects, health management, clinical research and BigData epidemiology. Currently he is working as Healthcare innovation and integral management Director at Vall d´Hebron.
14. Esteban Redolfi
Esteban should be definitely on this list of Barcelona influencers as he is the one who actually connects innovators, tech experts and investors. Esteban is a Program Director of 4YFN. The event 4YFN “is the startup business platform of Mobile World Capital Barcelona that enables startups, investors, corporations and public institutions to discover, create and launch new ventures together”. He is responsible for the strategic planning and development for all the projects of this platform. Also, he runs the entire business development strategy, coordinating the team.
15. Andreu Mas
He is a famous Journalist in Barcelona. A main part of his life was dedicated to the magazine “Revista de Barcelona” and “El punt avui”, where he is a digital content manager. Also, he founded along with two of his friends Nautilus, Comunicació i Cultura SL, Oxygyrus Media SL and another digital newspaper called lliureimillor.cat.
Christopher Pommerening is another entrepreneur who we believe should be on our Barcelona influencers list. He devoted himself full time to entrepreneurship and venture capital through his already established venture catalyst company VCMORE by offering consulting services and investment to start-ups through a network of business angels. And he co-started the Spanish chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) being one of the largest entrepreneur organisations in the world, and in the same year he co-founded Active Venture Partners, one of Europe’s first entrepreneurial driven VC companies. Also, he is a member of the Board of Directors of BuyVIP, Non Executive co-founder and Advisor of Foundum and Linqia, member of the Venture Committee of ASCRI, Advisor to Gild International and Chairman of the Venturepreneurs’ Organisation & of the Barcelona Entrepreneurship City Commission. Right now he is involved in the project of his dreams – Our dream school. He hopes to change the education system and make it much better!
17. Gerard Pique
Gerard is probably one of the most famous Barcelona influencers from this list since he is a well-known footballer and entrepreneur. He founded Kerad Games and eFootball.Pro. And is constantly searching for promising startups in Barcelona to invest in.
Maria Martín is the Co-Founder of Tiendeo, one of the fastest growing startups in Barcelona. She spent seven years leading projects in information management in the United States, India, Belgium, France and Spain in General Electric and Siemens. In Tiendeo he is in charge of the Marketing and Product department. She is an expert in finding the right team members and launching successful projects while having fun. Now she is featured in many magazines and newspapers as one of the main Barcelona influencers.
19. Vanessa Estorach
Vanessa became one of Barcelona influencers for her passion for technology and entrepreneurship. She is a CEO and Principal consultant from e-growing, a company that helps in the conceptualization and in the promotion of the mobile apps of the clients. Before that, she was part of Barcelona Activa association and, mentor at Conector Startup accelerator, professor at UPC and the Co Founder of “Women in Mobile”, organisation to bring together all the international talented women and exchange knowledge on what the mobile future holds.
20. Carles Gomara
Carlos absolutely deserves to be on the list of Barcelona influencers. He is a specialist in Innovation management and Digital Transformation. Currently, he is the Deputy Director of Innovation and Mobile International Program at the organisation ACCIÓ. He focuses his work on Innovation and Digital Transformation, helping small and medium enterprises to incorporate Innovation management and Digital Transformation in their organizations. He pushes to bring value and a better innovation ecosystem to the region of Catalonia. He is a representative of Catalonia at the CIP-ICT Committee of the European Commission and Member of the steering committee of TicSalut Foundation and in i2Cat foundation. He is in charge of Catalan pavilion in the Mobile World Congress and IoT Solutions World Congress. Besides all that he receive extra education in Business and Law at ESADE and MBA at university of North Carolina.
21. Eddy Zakes
Eddy is one of the main players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Barcelona. He is the current Head of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at the prestigious university of IESE Business School. His goal is to provide exceptional resources to entrepreneurs and investors and serve as a point of contact when they are not sure where to turn. He helps entrepreneurs with mentorship programmes, skills building, networking, financing, education, and research.
22. Pilar Conesa
Pilar has great experience in tech environments. She is an executive management expert with over twenty years experience in top-level technology sector positions and as CIO for large corporations. She is a Founder and CEO from Anteverti. Before that, she was also an IT Director for the Paralympic Games in Barcelona, Operations Director of ICT Services for the Generalitat de Catalunya for almost 7 years. And she was managing Director for Public & Health sector at T- Systems fact that allowed her to be part of the 2006 Master – Executive Business program at ESMT European School of Management and Technology. Later she worked for the Ajuntament de Barcelona as CIO & CEO of ICT city Services for almost 3 years. Finally before her current position she took part as Congress Curator in Smart City Expo World Congress for 7 years as well.
23. Sergio Cortés
Sergio defines himself as a Founder, Serial Entrepreneur and Investor. He is a teacher, speaker, mentor at great universities like: Esade, Esic, OBS, IDEC (Pompeu i Fabra), La Salle, Unidad Editorial, Euncet, Universidad Carlos III and Uned. He is currently the Associate partner of Llorente & Cuenca and Chairman at Cink Shaking Business. Before that he worked at Google launchpad program as mentor for startups providing them knowledge and the resources to make them succeed. He is an Investor & Business angel for many companies, for example: Step Out SL, Delitessen and Floqq and Founder of others such as Social-Buy and Overence Social commerce.
24. Carlos Blanco
Carlos is one of the biggest and most known investors and Barcelona influencers nowadays. He was the investor and Co-Founder of Nuclio, Barcelona Tech city, Eelp!, Brokoli, Housfy, Finteca and more than 85 other startups. He has written a book named “Key mistakes made by entrepreneurs” and he regularly gives classes in IE Business School and events like TED talks.
25. Vicente Arias
Vicente studied in University of Girona and Abat Oliba CEU. Currently he is a Founder and CEO of Coverfy. Before that, he was the director of Innovation, Development and Marketing of different companies like Softonic, Grupo Intercom, infojobs.net, LaVanguardia and others. Apart from it he Co-Founded other organisations such Offerum.com and Seedrocket. Right now he is considered to be one of the most important serial entrepreneurs and Internet enthusiasts.
26. Juan Margenat
Juan is a famous tech startups investor and number 26 in our influencer list. Also he is a Co-Founder and COO of Marfeel, tech-platform that changes the way publishers monetize mobile websites. Before starting Marfeel he founded several companies, where he became General Manager, for example: PlanB! and Bongo.
27. Jesus Monleon
Jesus is a private investor and has a huge experience in building, managing, monetizing and scaling online businesses.He already invested in internet startups like Habitissimo, Chicfy, Redbooth, Marfeel, Birchbox, Tiendeo and others. Also, he has been adviser and board member of different companies, like Caixa Capital Risk, Apartmentum, Abiquo, Trovit, offerum.com, Seedrocket, Coverfy and is currently the Founder and Partner of Seedrocket 4Founders capital. Jesus is mostly known in this influencer list for being business angel and investing in internet and tech ideas.
28. Albert Armengol
Alberto studied Medicine in UAB and got his MBA in ESADE. His professional life started in healthcare/insurance industry and continued in technology/internet one. Right now he is a well-known entrepreneur and seed investor. He is the current CEO and Co-Founder of Doctoralia and angel investor in different healthcare startups, that are based in EU and USA.
29. Ferran Martinez
Ferran has more than 25 years of experience in companies from the industry of Technology, Public Administration and Retail. He studies in UPC, Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana in USA and IESE Business school, he has lead different project strategies for FC Barcelona, Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, Diputació de Barcelona, Chamber of Commerce and others.
30. Amelia Pijuan
Last one on our list of Barcelona influencers is Amelia Pijuan. She studied Journalism in UAB. She has great experience working as a community manager for different firms like Infocentro, Tramuntana Restaurant, Ifeelbook and Joyners. She was the main editor of the famous magazine Modaes.es and her current position is the Director of Kippel01, one of the most popular digital business and technologies News site.
If you think that we forgot some people, let us know please!
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