Josep Maria Vilarrúbia, the Secretary General of the Catalan Government’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, was elected chair of the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) Supervisory Board at a meeting of the governing body held on Wednesday. Following a positive report from the public financial institution’s highest governing body, Vilarrúbia was appointed as a proprietary member of the ICF at Tuesday’s Executive Council meeting.

Josep Maria Vilarrúbia takes over from former ICF chair Jordi Cabrafiga and will lead the ICF’s Supervisory Board which also includes CEO Jordi Òliva, six independent members and two more proprietary members. In total there are ten members with a majority of independent ones as specified in legislation regulating public credit institutions.

The ICF’s new chair has a degree in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University and a PhD in Economics from Columbia University (New York), where he additionally earned an MA in Economics. He also completed the Vicens Vives Programme at Esade Business School (Barcelona).

Over his career he has been a research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); assistant and associate professor at Columbia University; assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Columbia University; an economist at the Bank of Spain and Director for Strategic and Quantitative Studies in the Research Department at Banc Sabadell.

In the public administration sector he is currently Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Prior to this post, between August 2021 and October 2022 he was Director General of Avançsa in the Ministry of Business and Labour.