Francesc Julià, CEO of Kave Home, inaugurates the 2025/26 academic year at UPF Barcelona School of Management
3 Octubre - 2025
The leader of the Catalan multinational, present in more than 40 countries, was in charge of delivering the inaugural lecture at the School’s Institutional Welcome Ceremony
A new academic year has already begun at UPF Barcelona School of Management, and to celebrate it and welcome the school’s new students, yesterday the inauguration ceremony for the 2025/26 academic year took place.
The ceremony was opened by Katharine D’Amico, Academic Director of the Executive MBA at UPF-BSM. “Today you stand at the threshold of a journey that will be both demanding and transformative. You arrive here bringing not only professional experience and ambition but also the dreams and values that will shape the next chapter of your lives,” Professor D’Amico noted.
“At UPF-BSM, we believe that executive education is not just about knowledge transfer; it is about transformation. Our educational approach is liquid, as it adapts to the changing reality of business and society, and supports our students to grow as leaders who are people, and as people who will become leaders,” the EMBA director added.
For his part, Francesc Julià began by congratulating all the students “for the simple fact of being here: deciding to invest in knowledge, in judgment, and in yourselves is already a declaration of intent,” he emphasized.
The CEO of Kave Home encouraged them to see the master’s degree as a means, not an end. “A degree does not make us better than others, it does not allow us to skip stages in life: it gives us advantages in several areas, it gives us an experience that will change our lives forever, but remember, it does not grant any rights per se,” he explained. “Opportunities in life arise from the sum of many small things.”
Julià explained the role that luck plays in people’s lives, something that we often “tend to forget,” he insisted, and he also highlighted the importance of roots and values as a foundation for growth. “I have been very lucky because of the parents I had, who supported me and passed down family values that are an inheritance from my grandparents,” the executive said.
“My family taught me that effort is not an option but an attitude; that humility is not weakness but an essential strength; and that work well done is not an exception but an obligation,” Julià stressed.
The Kave Home leader emphasized the importance of the journey, growth, transformation, and the will to progress, always without losing one’s identity. “Growing should not be a grandiose, vain act; growth, if not connected to one’s essence, is useless because it leaves no legacy,” he noted.
“My advice is to grow, transform yourselves, always keep your will to progress active, but never do so at the expense of who you truly are.”
He also highlighted the importance of collaborative management and stressed the significance of purpose. “It is not and should not be a slogan: it is the guiding thread that should connect every decision and gesture in your daily life,” he pointed out.
Student representatives María Linares Corominas (Master in International Business), Mar Llauradó (Master in Pharmaceutical Marketing), and Melanie Macher (MSc in Sustainability Management) did very interesting reflections on resilience, ambition, and purpose as future leaders.
The ceremony was closed by José M. Martínez-Sierra, General Director of UPF-BSM: “Today is a day to congratulate all of you for being here and for starting this great experience with us: I wish you the best of luck in this new academic year.”