Pere Lleonart, Director
Lleonart is an economist trained at the University of
Barcelona who initiated his professional career in the General Planning Offices
of Nestle, Spain, following which he worked for the consulting division of
Banca Catalana. In the seventies and eighties he launched a consulting practice
where he began to work with several of his current collaborators. He also
obtained international experience in the eighties as a consultant in London
and New York and served as a consultant to Organizacion y Desarollo Empresarial
(ODE) and Construmat and was a Professor of Economics at the Politechnical
University of Catalunya.. In 1989 he founded Gabinet d'Estudies Economics,
S.A.
Lleonart has participated in the design of general urban plans for more than
20 regions as well as the editing of the Regional Metropolitan Plan for the
Territory of Barcelona. He has also served as technical consultant to the
Commission for the Study of Highway Tollroads in Catalunya for the Parliament
of Catalunya addressing the necessary financing of transportation infrastructure.
He has published along with his collaborators some 25 studies as well as editing
biennially the report, Business Strategies of the Principal Spanish and European
Construction Enterprises.
In recognition of his contributions, he has received prestigious acclaim.
In 1985 he received the National Urbanism Prize from the Ministry of Promotion
for his design of the General Urban Plan of Hostalrich (Girona). In 1991 he
was awarded the First Prize of Economics of Catalunya by the Institute of
Catalan Studies for his publications on the intermediate cities of Catalunya
and its industrial future. He is considered an authority on the strategic
planning of both businesses and public services at the local and regional
levels and continues to serve as an invited professor in postgraduate courses
at the various Catalan universities.
Àngels García Hernàndez, Project
Director
Garcia Hernandez is an accomplished and practicing architect who was trained at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arqutectura de Barcelona. She initiated her professional career in the offices of Joan Arias Roig. Since 1990 she has served as a partner of Gabinet d'Estudis Economics with responsibility for projects on urban planning. Her work is characterized by the desire to integrate distinct aspects of urban and sociological structure including residential, commercial, service, leisure, and cultural dimensions and the accessibility of transportation and other urban conveniences. She has taken responsibility for the projects on urban commercial development for Gabinet d'Estudis Economics and serves as an expert on the transformation of municipal markets (Guadalajara, Mataro, and Vic).
Àlvar Garola Crespo, Project Director
Garola is an economist who was trained at the University
of Barcelona. He has done postgraduate work in the economics of engineering
and infrastructure at the Politechnical University of Catalunya. He also undertook
independent research on the methodogy of the U.S. Census Bureau at Stanford
University under the direction of Professor Henry Levin to employ these techniques
in urban and regional studies.
Since 1991 he has been a partner in Gabinet d'Estudis Economics and a Professor of Economics in the Department of Transport and Territorial Infrastructure of the Politechnical University of Catalunya.
His fields of specialization include economic forecasting, cost-benefit analysis,
and simulation models for businesses and urban development. He has particular
expertise in the study of efficient management of urban transport and infrastructure
as reflected in his doctoral thesis on car-sharing in the Barcelona area and
its implications for transportation movement.
Biblioni is a sociologist who studied at the Critical School of the Social Sciences in Madrid that is connected to the Center of Studies and Research (CEISA) of the Complutense University of Madrid. He participated on the team editing the Revision of the County Urban Plan for the County of Barcelona and has done numerous urban and regional studies of the demand for social development and of urban information. Biblioni has served as an expert on urban sociology, surveys and market studies since the establishment of Gabinet d'Estudis Economics.
Gemma Vélez Sabater, Coordinator of Data Analysis
Velez received her degree in Administration and Management of Enterprises
from the University of Pompeu Fabra and has had considerable experience in
data analysis.
She is responsible for the development of computational results for the econometric
simulation of urban and business models.