Hearing that the Associació Catalana de Comptabilitat i Direcció presented you with the award for academic excellence on Thursday was great news. This prestigious award comes in recognition of your valuable contribution to the world of finance and adds to the award received by Josep Angrill eleven years ago, also for his academic success at ESADE.
I will never forget the time I had the opportunity of being a student of yours. I think every one of the students you have taught would nominate you for this award. Many of your former students remember you as the professor who made it easy for us to make our way into the world of finance. And we did it in a fun and entertaining way, with highly innovative methods, in which you mixed the rigour of finance with your passion for mountaineering.
There can be few professors who have climbed Everest twice and who have gone on expeditions to Himalayan peaks, and who have then brought what they have learned to the classroom. You used to explain to us that, on the roof of the world, just as in business, motivation plays an enormous role. And that, on expeditions, you often felt small when you thought about how little an isolated individual can do and how much a single rope can do to quadruple a man’s strength. These are great pieces of advice.
You have always been a person of importance for the entire ESADE community. For 40 years, you have given your students a very solid grounding in finance. Much of this credit we owe to you: You are one of those professors that people never forget, and who leave their mark on us forever.
