Elisava renews its Board of Trustees and strengthens its commitment to linking universities and companies

The Fundació Privada Elisava Escola Universitària has renewed its Board of Trustees with the nomination of Jordi Conejos, PhD in Economics, as president and Ana Zelich, graphic and creative designer, as vice-president. Conejos and Zelich were already members of the previous Board of Trustees. Journalist Mar Galtés, an expert in the fields of business and entrepreneurship, has joined as a new trustee.

The aim of the new board of trustees (see the full composition here) is to consolidate Elisava, Barcelona’s School of Design and Engineering from UVic-UCC, as an educational centre of international reference, promote research and knowledge transfer and strengthen Elisava’s commitment to link university and business. Elisava promotes projects with companies, institutions and NGOs from various sectors in which students and faculty work in real professional environments to develop new products, services and projects. Through these collaborations, Elisava generates and transfers knowledge, addresses present and future challenges and promotes change.

The Board of Trustees has also unanimously renewed its confidence in Javier Peña as general and scientific director of Elisava for a further five years. An expert in materials, Peña has been CEO of Elisava since 2016.

Holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona and is currently a partner at the professional firm EVE, specialising in strategy and negotiation for companies; partner and strategy consultant at Competitiveness Inc, a consulting firm for international projects with public funding. He is also chairman of DIFMAQ, a machinery manufacturing company, a director of BALUWO and a member of the Board of Trustees of the European Foundation for Cluster Experience.

Conejos was the general manager of Industry at the Department of Industry of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1995-2001), investment director of Agrupación Mutua (2001-2003), CEO of Agrupación Mutua (2003-2008) and executive chairman of Banco de la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa – Bankpime- (2004-2007). Conejos has also been dean of the Association of Economists of Catalonia (2001-2007) and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the CIC Cultural Institution, chairman of the Working Group on Mediation of the Association of Economists of Catalonia and member of the Advisory Committee on Mediation of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Conejos has also taught at the University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra University, IDEC, ESADE, the Association of Economists of Catalonia and the Barcelona Bar Association, among others.

Creative director specialising in television branding and design for audiovisual and museum projects. Zelich has been the art director of Animàtica, the first company in the country dedicated to 3D animation. Founder of Zoptic studio specialising in design for the media and art director for Canal + Spain. Co-founder and creative director of Zelichstudio, a Mediapro group company specialising in television design and branding. Since 2013, she has focused her work in the exhibition field at Mediapro Exhibitions on global branding projects, graphics in space and audiovisual and interactive content. Zelich’s work has been distinguished on numerous occasions and in 2019 she received the LAUS OF HONOR award from ADG FAD in recognition of her entire professional career and contribution to the field of design.

Holds a degree in Information Sciences from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a PDD from IESE. She is currently Director of Corporate Development at Tech Barcelona, an association that represents more than a thousand companies in the digital and technology sectors in Barcelona. Previously, and for almost three decades, Galtés was an editor of the Economy section of La Vanguardia, specialising in companies, businessmen and entrepreneurs and in the fields of innovation, technology, trends and consumption.