Changes in the Turisme de Barcelona command bridge. The new president of the executive committee of this public-private consortium is the hotelier Jordi Clos, who takes over from Eduard Torres, after four years of government. According to the consortium’s statutes, the appointment of the presidency of Turisme de Barcelona corresponds to the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which has just held elections. Its new president, Josep Santacreu, took office this Monday, October 9, and one of his first decisions was to dismiss Torres that same day and appoint Clos.
It so happens that Eduard Torres was part of Eines de País, a rival candidacy to that of Santacreu for the presidency of the Chamber and the replacement at the head of Turisme de Barcelona was taken for granted after the victory of the latter.
The Turisme de Barcelona consortium was founded in 1993 and is made up of the Chamber and the city council. Its highest governing body is the General Council chaired by the mayor of Barcelona. According to municipal sources, Mayor Jaume Collboni will convene this general council next week where the appointment of Jordi Clos will be ratified and where the appointment of Mateu Hernández as the new general director of the entity will also be proposed. In this way, the City Council seeks to take advantage of the same act to unblock the process of filling the vacancy in the general management after the dismissal of Marian Muro in September of last year.
Muro’s departure sparked an internal crisis in Turisme de Barcelona. A selection process for candidates for general director was opened, which identified Mateu Hernández as the best placed. But, the president of the entity Eduard Torres did not see this name as appropriate and decided to also assume the role of general management.
The Barcelona city council government intends to end this interim period by taking advantage of the appointment of the new president of Turisme de Barcelona. Mateu Hernández Hernández comes from Barcelona Global, an organization of which he was founder and general director. He studied a degree in Law at the University of Barcelona and completed a master’s degree in Public and Social Policies at UPF with Johns Hopkins University. He currently worked for Casa Batlló’s international business development.
