Chair

Montserrat Vendrell Rius (Barcelona, 1964) has been chair of the UPF Board of Trustees since March 2019. A partner at Aliath Ventures (2023) and Alta Life Sciences (2016), a Barcelona-based venture capital funds that invests in life science companies, she has previously been CEO of Biocat, the Barcelona Science Park and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).

She holds a PhD in Biology from the UB (1991) and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Hoffmann La Roche (NJ, USA, 1992-1994) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, 1995-1997). She also holds a master's degree in Scientific Communication from the barcelona School of Management-UPF (1997) and a Promociona Degree for Female Executives from ESADE (2015).

She currently also chairs the Executive Committee of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and is a member of the RACC board of directors.

Duties

According to Catalan Law 1/2003, of 19 February, on Catalan universities, the chair of the Board of Trustees has the following duties:

  1. To manage the board and represent it in all relevant public or private bodies and institutions.
  2. To convene and chair plenary sessions and, where applicable, the committees and oversee and organize their discussions.
  3. To relay to the university’s rector the resolutions adopted at the plenary sessions and by the committees so that they can be implemented.
  4. To follow up on the board’s resolutions and, in general, monitor the progress of the work of both the board committees and the advisory committees.
  5. To propose to the plenary session the appointment and removal of board committee chairs and advisory committee chairs and secretaries, as well as, where applicable, the board members to take part in other bodies and institutions.
  6. To appoint and remove the secretary of the board.
  7. Any other duty incumbent on the chair of a collective decision-making body and those arising under Catalan Law 1/2003, of 19 February, the Pompeu Fabra University Statutes this regulation and any other applicable regulation in force.

Previous chairmanships

- Núria Basi Moré (chair from June 25, 2008 to March 22, 2019)
- Mercè Sala Schnorkowski (chair from April 13, 2004 to May 7, 2008)
- Joan Guitart Agell (chair from March 17, 1997 to April 13, 2004)
- Juan Echevarría Puig (chair from September 4, 1990 to March 17, 1997)