Javier Faus

Javier Faus Santasusana
Born (1964-08-23) 23 August 1964 (age 62)
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
EducationESADE
UAB
Georgetown University
OccupationsEntrepreneur, investor
Known forFounder of Meridian Capital Partners
TitleChairman and CEO of Meridian Capital Partners

Javier Faus (Barcelona, 1964) is a Spanish private equity investor, founder and chairman of the Barcelona-based alternative investment fund management firm Meridia Capital Partners. Active in civic associations, he served as Vice Chairman of FC Barcelona from 2010 to 2015. From July 2019 until July 2022, he served as chair of the Cercle d'Economia, a Spanish think tank that promotes liberal democratic public policies.

Education

Faus has a law degree from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, a Masters in International Law from Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.) and an Executive MBA from ESADE Business School (Barcelona).

Career

Prior to his investment career, Faus worked as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer in the New York City office of J&A Garrigues and the Barcelona office of Cuatrecasas Abogados.

In 2001, he led a consortium to acquire HOVISA, the real estate company that owned Hotel Arts in Barcelona, managed by Ritz-Carlton, amongst other assets. He subsequently became president and minority shareholder for the company. Faus managed the sale in 2006 of HOVISA to a joint venture formed by Host Hotels & Resorts and GIC (Government of Singapore). This deal was for 417 million euro, at the time the highest price ever paid for a single real estate asset in Spain.

Between 2003 and 2006, Faus was managing partner for Spain and Portugal at Patron Capital Partners, a London-based real estate fund manager.

In 2006, Faus founded Meridia Capital Partner, a private equity fund management firm that specialized in private equity and real estate. Its first fund, Meridia I, invested in urban hotel real estate including the W Paris Opéra Hotel, the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Santiago de Chile, and the InterContinental Hotel in São Paulo. In 2014, Meridia Capital launched Meridia II in Spain using a strategy to renovate and add value to commercial property business; the company followed a similar value-add strategy in funds Meridia III (2016) and Meridia IV (2019).

Meridia Capital made initial investments in private equity during 2016; its fund Meridia Private Equity I had five portfolio companies: Sosa Ingredients, Grupo Andilana, Futbol Emotion, Volotea and Kipenzi.

Since 2019, Meridia acts as exclusive advisor in Spain and Portugal for Franklin Templeton's pan-European Social Infrastructure Fund, a fund seeking financial returns while delivering a measurable social and environmental impact.

FC Barcelona

Faus joined the management board of FC Barcelona, led by Joan Laporta, in 2003. In June 2005, Faus resigned following the departures of other four board members earlier that month, Sandro Rosell, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Jordi Moix, and Jordi Monés.

After the victory of the candidacy presided over by Sandro Rosell to the presidency of FC Barcelona in 2010, Faus was appointed economic and strategic vice president of the management board. In June 2011, Faus announced budget cuts to the club's other sports sections and the discontinuation of the baseball section, citing financial sustainability concerns. The measures drew criticism.

Faus publicly supported FC Barcelona's sponsorship agreement with Qatar Foundation, which introduced commercial advertising on the team shirts for the first time, alongside the UNICEF logo. He defended the agreement by citing the club's financial situation. In November 2012, Faus announced that for the forthcoming season, the shirt sponsor would be modified from the Qatar Foundation to Qatar Airways in application of one of the clauses of the initial contract.

Following the reorganization of the board by the new president Josep Maria Bartomeu, Faus became the first vice president of the club in February of 2014.

Other business and institutional roles

Faus has won several awards, including the 2002 Deal of the Year by International Hotel Investment Forum and the SAHIC 2011 Award for Best Investor. Faus is also an active angel investor in the Spanish start-up arena, having invested in companies such as Cocunat, Colvin Co, AGORA Images and WorldCoo under the umbrella of Mnext Venture Capital.

Between 2010 and 2014, he was a member of the board of directors at Inmobiliaria Colonial, one of the leading public Spanish real estate companies. In May of 2016, Faus resigned from his position in the board of Colonial, to avoid potential conflicts of interest arising from his other professional activities. In 2016, he became a member of the board of directors of Indukern, a leading Spanish pharmaceutical company.

The Cercle d'Economia, a discussion forum for businesspeople and economists, elected Faus as its president on July 24, 2019. As the only candidate, he was proclaimed president with 423 favorable votes, 1 vote against, and one abstention. Faus announced the creation of an advisory council that would be led by the outgoing president, Juan José Brugera, and two former presidents: the professor of the University of Barcelona, Anton Costas and the former minister of the People's Party, Josep Piqué. He also made public that the new management board would be equally gendered: 10 men and 10 women of renowned prestige. Faus remained president of the Cercle d'Economia until 2022. That year, Faus was a member of the jury for the second Cercle d'Economia Award for European Integration, which was presented to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In the academic sphere, Faus is a member of the ESADE Alumni executive board and has collaborated with various professors at Harvard, IESE, and ESADE Business Schools.

Controversies

Faus cited personal and professional reasons for his resignation from FC Barcelona's board in 2005, although his departure was also linked to disagreements with Laporta and his exclusion from sponsorship negotiations with the Chinese government.

As the economic vice president of the FC Barcelona, Faus reformed the accounts presented by the outgoing management board chaired by Joan Laporta, and promoted social liability actions against the former management board that was approved by the members assembly. In July 2011, the management board filed a lawsuit in court. In October 2014, the court dismissed the claim and determined that the overall result during Laporta's mandate had been positive.

In December 2013, Faus questioned the need to renegotiate Leo Messi's contract, arguing that it had been improved the previous year. Messi responded by criticizing Faus's understanding of football denying that he had requested a new contract. In January 2014, Faus clarified his remarks, stating that there had been no bad faith on them.

In November 2014, the former candidate for the presidency of FC Barcelona, Agustí Benedito, stated in a press conference that Faus had interests and business in Qatar while serving on FC Barcelona's board. Javier Faus filed a complaint against Benedito, who refused to retract his statement. The court later dismissed the lawsuit and Faus was made to pay the court costs.

References

  1. 1 2 "¿Quién es Javier Faus?". Diario GOL (in Spanish). 20 December 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  2. ↑ "Javier Faus, nou president del Cercle d'Economia". Vilaweb (in Catalan). 24 July 2019. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  3. ↑ "Jaume Guardiola, elegido nuevo presidente del Cercle d'Economia con el 70,8% de los votos". Europa Press. 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  4. ↑ Casas, Josep Maria (22 May 2019). "Faus: el hábil inversor enfrentado con Messi que conquista el Círculo". ED Economia Digital (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  5. ↑ "Un grupo inversor compra el Hotel Arts de Barcelona por 417 millones: la cifra más alta por un edificio en España". El Economista (in Spanish). 24 July 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 "Team MCP". Meridian Capital Partners. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  7. ↑ "Faus da entrada a la francesa Savencia en Sosa Ingredients". ED Economia Digital (in Spanish). 25 November 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  8. ↑ "Meridia se asocia con la gestora Templeton para invertir en infraestructuras sociales". The World News (in Spanish). 17 June 2019. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  9. ↑ "Un nuevo hotelero en la directiva". Diario AS (in Spanish). 2003-07-24. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  10. 1 2 "Xavier Faus, quinto directivo del Barça que dimite". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 31 May 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  11. ↑ PRESS, RTVE es / EUROPA (2010-07-01). "Rosell, nuevo presidente del Barça: "Os prometo que estaremos a la altura"". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  12. ↑ "El FC Barcelona sacrifica el béisbol". rtve (in Spanish). 8 June 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  13. ↑ Toni Padilla (7 June 2011). "Les seccions no professionals faran una trobada per protestar aquest dijous". Diari Ara (in Catalan). Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  14. ↑ "El FC Barcelona firma con Qatar Foundation un acuerdo por 165 millones de euros". Europa Press (in Spanish). 10 December 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  15. 1 2 Lowe, Sid (2010-12-10). "Barcelona sign record £25m a year shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar charity". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  16. ↑ "El Barcelona lucirá 'Qatar Airways' en su camiseta". Marca (in Spanish). 16 November 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  17. ↑ Bartomeu renueva la junta directiva del FC Barcelona (in Spanish). 2014-02-10. Retrieved 2026-10-11 – via www.rtve.es.
  18. ↑ Orihuel, J; Díaz, T (11 October 2016). "Javier Faus lanza Mnext y entra en Science Bits, Cocunat y Worldcoo". Expansión (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  19. ↑ "Economía/Empresas.- Javier Faus renuncia a su puesto de consejero de Colonial para evitar conflictos de interés". Europa Press (in Spanish). 26 May 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  20. ↑ "Javier Faus renuncia a su puesto de consejero de Colonial para evitar conflictos de interés". El Economista (in Spanish). 26 May 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  21. ↑ "Board of Directors". Web Grupo Indukern. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  22. ↑ Magallón, Eduardo (25 July 2019). "El Cercle reclama a la Generalitat y al Estado que inviertan en Barcelona". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  23. ↑ "Javier Faus, nuevo presidente del Cercle d'Economia". Europa Press (in Spanish). 24 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  24. ↑ Costa, Víctor (24 July 2019). "Javier Faus, el capital risc i blaugrana del Cercle". Via Empresa (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  25. 1 2 FORBES (2023-09-18). "Hombre del día: Javier Faus, fundador y primer ejecutivo de Meridia Capital". Forbes España (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2026-10-01.
  26. ↑ Sala, Agustí (2022-01-28). "El Cercle premia a la presidenta de la Comisión Europea". El Periódico (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-10-01.
  27. ↑ Loaiza, Fonsi (2014-09-16). ""Laporta dejó una deuda apoteósica"". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  28. ↑ "Laporta impugnará la Asamblea de Compromisarios". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 18 October 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  29. ↑ AGENCIAS (2014-10-28). "Desestimada la demanda del Barcelona contra Joan Laporta y 16 exdirectivos". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  30. ↑ "Javier Faus no entendria que es tornés a millorar el contracte de Leo Messi". Diari Ara (in Catalan). 10 December 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  31. 1 2 "Leo Messi estalla contra Faus: "El FC Barcelona merece ser representado por mejores dirigentes"". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 23 December 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  32. ↑ ""A veces se dicen cosas que no se quieren decir"". Marca (in Spanish). 20 January 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  33. ↑ Joan Domènech (5 May 2016). "Faus tuvo negocios en Catar cuando era directivo del Barça". El Periódico (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  34. ↑ Toni Frieros (4 May 2016). "Desestimada la demanda de Javier Faus contra Agustí Benedito". Diario Sport (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 July 2019.