A doctor by training, Josep Santacreu Bonjoch put an end to a twenty-five-year career at the head of the DKV insurance company at the beginning of the year, in which he achieved financial success, multiplying income sevenfold, but also of a social nature, with initiatives such as the Integralia Foundation, which employs more than 600 people with disabilities. “I will never stop being the activist that I am,” he declared when his candidacy to preside over the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce was announced, challenging the well-known mobilization capacity of his pro-independence rivals Eines de País-Un Pas Més.
Faithful to this philosophy, he aspires to get a seat with the Fundació Pro Disminuïts Psíquics Finestrelles and will have to beat the Creu Groga medical center, from the rival list. His cordial disposition, his professional profile and his clear Catalanist orientation ensure him many sympathies beyond strict political affiliations. Well regarded in the PSC, in ERC and also in some sectors of Junts, among them ex-councillors Jaume Giró and Victoria Alsina or the ex-mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias, with whom he has maintained a friendly relationship for years.
He is convinced, however, that it is necessary to shake the steering wheel, to put an end to the high politicization of the Chamber of these last four years and to adjust to more business criteria. “A group of businessmen came to have the clear certainty that the evolution of the institution, the management of the last four years and the high politicization of the decisions of the current representatives forced us, due to the responsibility of the country, to submit a candidacy that had a single objective: to return the management of the Chamber to the origin of its essence”, he explains. “If it has to be summed up in one sentence, it is an exercise of civic responsibility so that society has a legacy in its institutions that is solid”, he adds.
Santacreu always avoids confrontation and advocates forging complicities, also in the Chamber. “I don’t know if it’s important to personify whether I’m the best candidate, even though I think that my professional career supports me in the business field, but I think that the curriculum only partially defines any person”, he answers the question of what do you think is the best candidate. “But what is really important is the willingness and ability to establish alliances to generate trust and complicity that allow us to carry out strategic projects without leaving anyone behind. But above all to be able to bring together a wide spectrum of sensitivities and groups that do not have a single way of thinking in order to make the Chamber an inclusive space that incorporates different sectors of society and business”, he says. And that is why he considers that the most important thing is the team and not the president.
“I don’t pretend to be the best candidate, but to represent the best candidate”, he says regarding his team, which includes Eloi Planes (Fluidra), Juan José Brugera (Colonial) and Josep Ametller (Casa Ametller).