BarcelonaFemCAT, the private foundation of Catalan entrepreneurs, will gather its members this Thursday afternoon in Arenys de Munt as part of the assembly held every two years to renew a third of its board of trustees and also the presidency of the entity. It will be then when it will be officially decided who will take over from the current president, Oriol Guixà, but a name has been floated for weeks as the most plausible candidate: Tatxo Benet. According to ARA, the former president of Mediapro would be the outgoing president’s preferred candidate, despite the fact that the assembly is still awaiting approval.
Tatxo Benet (Lleida, 1957), well-known businessman in the Catalan audiovisual sector, left the executive presidency of Mediapro in October 2025 after more than 30 years at the head of the company, and was replaced by the former president of Telefónica España, Sergio Oslé. However, he still holds a 5% stake in the audiovisual company, and is also the owner of Ona Bookstore.
“If there are no surprises, the next president of FemCAT will be Tatxo Benet – point out business sources – but in the end it depends on what is voted on in the assembly”, they say. “It’s a personal bet by Guixà, it’s a powerful and different profile,” says another source. In any case, by statute, the president must be a member of the foundation’s board of trustees, so first Benet would have to enter as a new patron and then be elected president by the renewed board of trustees.
Among other names, businessman Xavier Fitó, CEO of Semillas Fitó and current vice-president of FemCAT and a strong figure within the organization, had been mentioned as a possible successor to Guixà. After the assembly, a dinner with the president of the Generalitat was planned, which ultimately cannot be held due to the hospitalization of Salvador Illa this weekend.
the consensus
The main governing body of FemCAT is the board of trustees. It meets once a quarter and is responsible for making all decisions that affect the foundation, from its strategy to actions and management. According to the statutes that govern the institution, the board of trustees must be renewed every three years, but it is usual for it to be renewed every two years with the rotation of approximately one third of its members, coinciding with the appointment of a new president (they are biannual mandates).
Benet will be, if there are no surprises, the tenth president of FemCAT, an entity born in 2004 and which had Joaquim Boixareu (Irestal Group) as its first visible head. Nominations to FemCAT are normally worked out internally between the Board of Trustees and Honorary Patrons (past-presidents) and then a meeting is held where all members can attend. That’s when the appointment takes place: this year it will be January 22 in Arenys. So, generally the incoming president is a consensual profile, and, according to several sources, “it has never happened that the name proposed to the assembly is not accepted.”
Once the mandate has expired, a president cannot be re-elected, but he can be appointed honorary patron, a position that gives him the right to speak and vote in this body. Known names from the business world have passed through the presidency of FemCAT, such as Oriol Guixà (La Farga), David Marín (Inacécs Geotècnica), Elena Massot (Vertix), Pau Relat (MAT Holding and president of Fira de Barcelona), Ramon Carbonell (Bonvent), Miquel Martí (Moventia), Carles Sumarroca (Agromillora), Josep Mateu (RACC) and Joaquim Boixareu (Irestal Group).
