CataloniaBio & HealthTech has opened the election process to choose a new president and board of directors to serve the association for the next four years. The candidacies, which must be submitted by 19 January, must include at least one representative of a biopharmaceutical company and one from a medical technology or digital health company. New this year, the president and the first vice-president will swap roles after the first two years in order to make the body more participative. 

The new board of directors will have between eight and twelve members, depending on the candidacy chosen, and will be charged with executing the action plan with the new association’s strategic lines: internal and external networking, innovation and technology transfer, international alliances, investment and funding, talent management, regulatory framework and communication. It must be noted, taking into account the type of companies in the sector, that there will have to be representatives from two SMEs with fewer than 50 employees and one micro-enterprise.

Voting will take place on 8 February at the general members’ assembly in Barcelona. 

CataloniaBio & HealthTech is the new entity after the merger of CataloniaBio and Health Tech Cluster that represents more than 170 companies, as well as collaborating stakeholders such as hospitals, research centres and universities that are leaders in R&D in biomedicine. The headquarters will be located at the Barcelona Science Park. The profile of member companies ranges from microenterprises to SMEs and large corporations developing products (drugs medical devices, diagnostic tests, etc.), scientific services, non-scientific services and knowledge generators.

Press release (in Spanish)

Photo: the governing body that coordinated the merger, made up of the members of the two boards of directors. From left to right, Jaume Amat (CataloniaBio-Specipig), Albert Giralt (HealthTech Cluster-Avinent), Ignasi Biosca (CataloniaBio-Reig Jofre), Albert Gallart (HealthTech Cluster-Grupo Pulso), Clara Campàs (CataloniaBio-Kern Pharma), Melqui Calzado (CataloniaBio) and Manel Pretel (HealthTech Cluster). Also Àngel Alonso (HealthTech Cluster-Vecmedical) who is not in the picture.