Antoni Subirà

Antoni Subirà i Claus was Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism of the Catalan Government until November 2002. Recently, he became a full-time member of the faculty of IESE Business School, where he has taught in other capacities for many years.

He was born in Mataró in 1940, into an industrial family. After President Jordi Pujol, he is the longest serving member of the Catalan Government. His career has been marked by the world of politics.

After earning a Doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Subirà moved to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship. He earned a Master of Science in Industrial Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and in 1965, returned to Catalunya to join IESE as a Professor of Managerial Economics. He had worked at IESE for several months in 1962 as a Research Assistant.

From 1967 to 1974, he was Director of the MBA program at IESE. The program had been launched three years earlier, and during this stage was fully consolidated. At the same time, he also served as a consultant for various companies including Cepsa, Nestlé, IBM, and ACESA.

With the political transition to democracy in Spain in 1975, Subirà grew more involved with politics. The political party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) was founded in clandestine at this time, by Jordi Pujol, Miguel Roca, Antón Canyelles and Antoni Subirà.

During these years, Subirà assumed different responsibilities within the party until April 1980, when he was elected a PM of the Parliament of Catalunya. From February 1982 to December 1989, he was whip of the Parliamentary group of the coalition in government in Catalunya. Subsequently, he was nominated Minister of Industry and Energy and in June 1996, he acquired responsibility for the area of Trade and Tourism.

Subirà''s industrial policy rested on four axis - internationalization, quality/competitiveness, research and development, and equitization - utilizing the "clusters" methodology developed by Mr. Porter. He is currently Chairman of the Advisory Board of The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) and of the foundation Clusters and Competitiveness, and Member of the Advisory Board of Mercapital and Air Products.

Married, with three children and four grandsons, he loves to read, listen to music and play sports, such as sailing and tennis.

As Minister of Industry and Energy, Trade and Tourism, Antoni Subirà has been a member of numerous Boards, of which stand out the Presidency of the COPCA, Institut Català de Consum, Institut Català de Tecnologia, Turisme de Catalunya, Centro Internacional de Métodos Numéricos de la Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Catalana d''Iniciatives, the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX), and Fira Internacional de Barcelona, Mercapital.

He has received the following decorations: Order of the Rising Sun with Golden Rays and Neck Ribon. Nov-2003