Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte will head the new Chair of Leadership in Values at the UVic-UCC

Two leading figures from the world of sport, Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte, will head the new Chair of Leadership in Values at the University of Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), which will be based on the Manresa Campus. The Chair was established to promote styles of leadership that have a positive impact on both the local and global environment, and the personal and professional backgrounds of the two directors will contribute to making its principles and objectives more visible, and raising its international profile.

The Board of Trustees of the Balmes University Foundation gave the green light to the creation of the chair at its ordinary meeting which took place on 20 December, at the proposal of the Bages University Foundation, which has been the driving force behind the project. The chair will have an academic management team consisting of the doctor of Psychology and director of the Bages University Foundation, Valentí Martínez, and the doctor of Social Psychology Carlota Riera. It will also have an assistant director, who will be Albert Estiarte, the doctor of the Spanish water polo teams.

Linking high academic standards to professional practic

University chairs are a means of bringing the academic and professional worlds closer together, and enabling the transfer of knowledge and experience from one to the other. The Leadership in Values Chair has been established with the aim of creating the conditions which enable organisations, teams and people to use leadership to promote positive changes in the environment, especially from the worlds of business, health, education and sport. It will work in various areas: research and innovation on ethical leadership based on values, teaching, training, consultancy and dissemination, as well as on creating spaces for reflection and debate, as well as public awareness.

Pep Guardiola is a former professional footballer, and is the current coach of the first team at Manchester City. He is a renowned figure in the sports world, and received the Medal of Honour from the Parliament of Catalonia in 2011, for his ability to convey the values of "sportsmanship, teamwork, effort and personal determination." Manel Estiarte is a former water polo player, and a member of Pep Guardiola's coaching staff at Manchester City. He was an Olympic athlete on various occasions, and was a member of the International Olympic Committee. He received the Prince of Asturias Sports Award in 2001 for his exemplary sporting career.

A collegiate management

The management of the Chair of Leadership in Values will be collegiate. In addition to Guardiola and Estiarte, the academic management team will consist of Valentí Martínez and Carlota Riera, and the assistant director will be Albert Estiarte, the doctor of the Spanish water polo teams (with which he has taken part in eight Olympic Games), the deputy director of the Althaia Foundation and a holder of the Sports Merit Medal awarded by Manresa City Council. Valentí Martínez is a doctor in Psychology, an expert in leadership and management of people and teams, a Spanish and international trainer and consultant, and the general manager of the Bages University Foundation. Carlota Riera, a doctor in Social Psychology, has worked in the professional and academic spheres in areas including leadership and transformative innovation, and she is currently the Director of Corporate Development at Bages University Foundation.

The public presentation of the chair will take place during the first quarter of 2023, at an event which will be attended by all those involved in its management. The event will provide a detailed presentation of its objectives and the roadmap that will guide its work in the coming years.