The new president

Born in Barcelona on June 29, 1962, father of three children, Joan Laporta has a degree in Law from the University of Barcelona and Masters in Company Law and Tax Experts at the Institut d'Estudis Superiors Abat Oliba in Barcelona. He is a founding partner and owner of the law firm Laporta & Arbós Advocats Associats; a member of the Il·lustre Col·legi d'Advocats de Barcelona and, among other positions, he is a member of the Board of Trustees and of the Executive Committee of the Lluch Foundation and the Johan Cruyff Welfare Foundation.

Laporta was elected president of FC Barcelona after winning the elections held in June 2003, and in the summer of 2006 he was re-elected as president of the club. With Joan Laporta, a generation of young and dynamic leaders came to the entity who generated a real boost by putting into circulation the expression of the 'virtuous circle', which tried to strengthen the club economically and socially, to make a winning team possible and to provide feedback for the social dimension of the entity.

During the seven years of his presidency, the first team achieved two Champions Leagues, four league championships, a Copa del Rey, a Club World Cup, a European Super Cup, three Spanish Super Cups and three Spanish Cups. It should be noted that the four professional sections of the club (football, basketball, handball and roller hockey) managed to proclaim themselves European champions under his presidency too.

In the economic and social sphere, the evolution of the data was also significant: the budget went from 170 to 455.5 million euros and, the social mass, from 106,135 to 173,701 members.

Joan Laporta was a leader in the fight against violence in stadiums and got FC Barcelona to be recognised as a standard-bearer in favour of peace, solidarity, democracy and individual and collective freedoms, essences with which it had traditionally been identified.

With the motto 'Més que un club' Joan Laporta signed several collaboration agreements with UNICEF, Unesco and Acnur and promoted the opening of XICS centers (Xarxa Internacional de Centers Solidaris) all over the world through the FC Barcelona Foundation. With the historic signing of the agreement with UNICEF, in New York, in September 2006, FC Barcelona undertook to collaborate financially with the association for the protection of children, and the first team would also wear its logo on the shirt. It was an unprecedented approach that reinforced the strategy of turning Barça into more than a club in the world.

After the period as president of Barça, Laporta decided to step into the world of politics and founded, in July 2010, Democràcia Catalana, a Catalan party, democratic, humanist, progressive and a defender of individual and collective human rights. Joan Laporta was a deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia from November 2010 to October 2012, and a councilor for the Barcelona City Council from May 2011 to May 2015.