The Board of Trustees of the technology centre Eurecat unanimously appointed Josep Lluís Checa as the entity’s new Director General on Tuesday. The leadership transition forms part of an orderly and planned process led by the centre’s Strategy and Governance Committee, with the support of an external consultancy.
The President of Eurecat, Daniel Altimiras, stated that “the appointment of the new Director General will coincide with the completion, next year, of the centre’s current strategic plan and the start of a new period aimed at strengthening Eurecat’s technology transfer capabilities and increasing its impact on the business ecosystem in a context of unprecedented global technological change.”
Together with the Minister for Business and Labour of the Government of Catalonia and Eurecat’s First Vice-President, Miquel Sàmper, the members of the Board of Trustees recognised Xavier López’s career, “both for his outstanding contribution to the creation of the organisation and for establishing Eurecat as a recognised benchmark in Europe.”
Career of Josep Lluís Checa
An industrial engineering technician, Josep Lluís Checa has served as Director General of the TecnoCampus Mataró-Maresme Foundation for the past nine years. He holds a PDG (Programme for General Management) from IESE and has extensive experience in the management of public and private organisations, technological innovation, and fostering connections between knowledge and business. Throughout his career, he has held management positions at Gas Natural and the Centre for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), among other organisations.
Checa, who will take up the position in January 2027, stated that “I take on this responsibility with a commitment to strengthening Eurecat’s role as a strategic ally for companies in accelerating high-impact innovation. Building on a distinctive and successful model and a strong track record, we will continue to drive new opportunities for collaboration and value creation for businesses, the region and society.”
About Eurecat
Eurecat is a leading technology centre in Europe that develops solutions to improve the competitiveness of companies and society through applied research, technology transfer and innovation. With a strong regional presence, it currently employs more than 860 specialists in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, materials, biotechnology, health, sustainability and advanced manufacturing.
Over the last eleven years, it has generated an economic impact of more than €1.25 billion on the turnover of Catalan companies and institutions and has provided technological support to more than 3,500 SMEs in their innovation processes. This year, it received the National Award for Knowledge Transfer and Innovation, granted by the Government of Catalonia and the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI).
Supporting Eurecat’s activity and that of Catalan technology centres is one of the key pillars of ACCIÓ’s new Catalonia Business Innovation Strategy 2026-2030, aimed at strengthening their role as a bridge between research and business for innovation. ACCIÓ, the agency for business growth of the Department of Business and Labour, has identified this as a strategic priority within a roadmap comprising eight pillars and 33 specific actions. The strategy sets objectives such as reaching 2 percent of GDP in business R&D expenditure and surpassing 12,000 innovative companies and 3,000 startups by 2030.
