Antoni Cahner, new UOC general manager and FUOC CEO

Now that the transition period that President Josep A. Planell and the current general manager agreed to at the start of his term in office in April 2013 has come to an end and with the UOC's main strategic challenges well in hand, Armengol expressed her wish to start a new stage in her career from January 2015 onwards.

Thus, at the proposal of the president, the UOC Board of Trustees' Standing Committee decided to appoint Antoni Cahner, the current director of global business development, as the new UOC general manager and FUOC CEO.

Armengol has held the positions of UOC general manager and FUOC CEO since 28 November 2012. She had previously been the University's deputy general manager of administration.


In-house handover

Cahner began working as the director of global business development at the UOC in July, when he was commissioned to define and deploy the University's growth and internationalization strategy. He has held a number of top executive positions in the field of organization management.

He has a bachelor's degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona, an MBA from ESADE and a GMP from IESE. He held the position of vice president of systems integration at T-Systems until last July.

Cahner began his career at the Catalan Institute of Technology in 1991 as a consultant and head of training. Between 1997 and 2001, he was quality manager at Gedas Iberia, a Volkswagen group company.

Before working at T-Systems Iberia, he held a number of executive positions in the field of higher education management, first as director of business development at GEC, SA, and later as general manager of Planeta UOC SL and assistant general manger of the UOC from 2001 to 2005. At the start of 2006 he took part in designing the activity development strategy for the higher education sector at the Planeta group, where he was general manager of the EAE Online division from its creation.


UOC general manager and FUOC CEO

As established in the Organizational and Operational Regulations, the general manager is responsible for the day-to-day running of the University, including legal, financial and budgetary control of its activities, and those functions deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees. The general manager is appointed and dismissed by the Board of Trustees. Due to their position, the general manager is also CEO of the Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (FUOC).

The general manager is a full member of the Executive Management Committee and attends the meetings of the FUOC's Board of Trustees and Standing Committee in an advisory role. The general manager may be assisted by deputy general managers, who they can assign the corresponding functions and dismiss. The president appoints them, at the proposal of the general manager.