6.15.03 22:15 FCBarcelona.com

Joan Laporta i Estruch, born in Barcelona on 29th June 1962, has been elected as the 38th president in the history of the Club.

Member number 27,869, he is married to Constanza and has three children, Pol, Guillem and Joan.

He was the leading figure and spokesman for the Elefant Blau opposition group which presented a motion of censure against the then president Josep Lluís Núñez and his Board in 1998 and has today, 15th June 2003, won the elections for the Presidency of the Club. These elections will be remembered for the large number of candidates, six in total: Joan Laporta, Lluís Bassat, Jaume Llauradó, Josep Martínez-Rovira, Josep Maria Minguella and Jordi Majó, and for the high percentage of members voting, some 53'79%.

Laporta, a well-known Barca fan notable for his youth and love of all things Catalan, takes up the Presidency after the resignation of the previous president, Joan Gaspart, in the middle of February 2003 and the interim president Enric Reyna, who resigned in Mayo. Since then a temporary Board led by Joan Trayter has governed the Club and paved the way for the elections which Joan Laporta has just won. He holds a degree in law from the University of Barcelona and is a member of the Barcelona College of Lawyers and of the Executive Commission of the Ernest Lluch Foundation. He has a Masters degree in Company and Tax Law from the Barcelona Instituto de Estudios Superiores Abat Oliba and holds a Diploma in Company Law from the Barcelona College of Lawyers. Laporta is a founder partner of the firm of lawyers LAPORTA & ARBÓS, Abogados Asociados, and associate professor of Property Law in the Architecture Dept. of the University of Barcelona. He has also been a personal consultant to the Japanese consul in Barcelona.