The four participants were Àngels Roqueta, founding partner of Compas; Mercè Mullor, CEO of Mullor Facility Services; Mara Dierssen, senior scientist at the Biomedical Research Centre for Rare Diseases Network (CIBERER), and Montserrat Gispert, legal expert in human resources at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. They each described their professional and personal trajectories and discussed the main obstacles they have faced, as well as the driving forces behind their efforts to achieve all-round success. 

 

Mara Diersson was the first to contribute. A mother of four and an influential neurobiologist in Spanish science, Mara explained how important it is to have public and private policies in the academic sphere that help women excel in executive and managerial roles. 

 

We then heard from Mercè Mullor, mother of three and CEO of an industrial group with more than 3,000 employees. She highlighted just how important her husband’s support has been throughout her career, saying “he made a decision to join the company. He wanted to work with me and drive the family business forward together”. 

 

Next, Àngels Roqueta described her experiences as the founding partner of Compas. With more than 25 years’ experience in business consultancy in the investment sector, and having worked as an independent advisor for Bank Degroof Petercam España and for ARSA (Montserrat Abbey), she stressed that the presence of females in the banking sector is on the rise, which has changed its outlook”.

 

The final speaker was Montserrat Gispert Bosch, who has one daughter and has held executive roles in spheres traditionally dominated by men. As part of her presentation, she spoke about her 14 years at the helm of the Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC) and 9 years leading the Barcelona Food Bank Foundation. Besides her work in these top-level positions, she has also been a member of various committees, councils and public bodies in Spain, Europe and other countries.  She then went on to add that “I was able to make a name for myself in a difficult environment that did however understand my decision to step away from my responsibilities when I decided to take time off to look after my daughter. I also decided to take the national exams and am now an expert in the legal aspects of human resources at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which helps around 6,500 civil servants and employees. Taking on a role leading the University’s Planning and Organisation Office has been an incredibly rewarding challenge.  Being able to advise and help make decisions on complicated matters is a demanding job, but one that provides me with a continuous source of satisfaction”.