Joana Barbany, Director of Business Development at Technology by PageGroup and former Director General of Societat Digital del Govern de Catalunya, elected president of the Clúster Digital de Catalunya during the General Assembly of the entity, held on April 18 in Barcelona.

Barbany will take the testimony of Albino Campo, CEO of Numintec, who has been president of the entity since 2018, thus becoming the first woman to preside over the Clúster Digital.

Joana Barbany i Freixa is a professional in the ICT sector with more than 20 years of experience linked to the digital sector and new technologies in the public and private sector. Of her extensive experience, her position as General Director of Societat Digital at the Generalitat de Catalunya between 2018 and 2022 and as ambassador of the international Women in tech network in Barcelona stands out. She is currently Director of Business Development at Technolgy by PageGroup and has just published her first book "Rehumanizing Technology" where she reflects on the impact of technology on people, the company and society.

The Cluster Assembly was attended by around sixty members of the Clúster Digital de Catalunya who were also able to meet the new board of directors, made up of: Joan Planella, Managing Director of Oracle's Barcelona office, to the vice presidency; Joan Maria Bertran, Managing Partner of FHIOS as treasurer; Carles Rams, CEO of Ebantic in the secretariat; and on vocals, David Garriga, CEO of SIRT, Jaume Saltó, CEO of Grup Saltó, Xevi Sagué, Commercial Director of AETECH, Pablo Velasco, CEO of 5SKILL, Josep Salvatella, President of Roca & Salvatella, Gemma Batlle, Development Manager of the Ecosistema StartUps in Eurecat, and Marius Albert Gómez, Head of Public Sector Sales at T-Systems.

During the event, the new strategic plan of the entity for the next 3 years was also presented, focusing on facilitating the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry and on actions that revolve around 4 challenges: internationalization, talent, digital transformation and training. In this sense, Joana Barbany, in her first words as the new president of the Clúster Digital, wanted to emphasize that she will work to forge alliances and make the cluster visible as a tool for the digital transformation of the country's industry: "I count on your involvement and participation so that the Cluster can take a step forward with this new strategic plan".

The day also served to take stock of the last year, in which the Clúster Digital obtained a total of €2,663,000 to distribute between Catalan and European SMEs for collaborative ICT innovation projects. Among these, EPICENTRE stands out, a program of support, acceleration, validation and transfer to the market of innovative solutions between small and medium-sized companies and corporates, in which a total of 67 SMEs and startups from all over Europe are participating.

After a quick round of presentations from companies in the Clúster, the event concluded with a round table on the challenges of digitization in industry with the participation of José Luis Massana, Director General of Fisher Ibérica, Carles Guilera, CEO de Guilera, Ana Freire, vice-dean and director of the Master in Data Analytics for Business de la UPF and Xevi Sagué, CSMO -Director, Commercial and Industrial Marketing at AETECH.

With this act, the Clúster Digital de Catalunya reaffirms its commitment to the promotion of the technological and digital sector and hopes to collaborate closely with all agents interested in the development of disruptive innovations and the sustainable growth of the digital economy in Catalunya.