Discover Board 2030
Board 2030 is a space where top executives from large companies in Barcelona identify their most serious challenges and decide what they will do together to address them.
Barcelona attracts investment, talent, and tourism. But the various annual reports from the Barcelona Observatory also reveal where the city falls short: risk of poverty and exclusion, work-life balance and employment, with an unemployment rate above the European average.
In Spain, 1 in 4 young people under 25 cannot find a job. Education is the decisive variable: those who do not complete upper secondary education are 13 percentage points more likely to be unemployed and school dropout is 14 times more probable if the mother only completed primary education.
In Spain, 1 in every eight young people (12.8%) drop out of school prematurely. In Catalonia, this rate is even higher (13.5%). To address this problem, the involvement of the city’s main stakeholders, including businesses, is necessary. the involvement of the city’s main stakeholders, including businesses,
Board 2030 brings together top executives from large companies in Barcelona who seek to create a community of change capable of generating solutions to address challenges such as inequality, employability, housing, and sustainability.
For over three years, they have worked by meeting with social actors, public institutions, and the third sector to listen, diagnose, and design solutions. Board 2030 goes beyond being a debate forum or a networking space: it is a collective and operational commitment that underpins its first public action.
Board 2030’s first collective action addresses early school dropout. Not because it is Barcelona’s only problem, but because it is the root of many others.
A young person who stops studying prematurely not only loses career options. They enter a documented spiral: higher probability of unemployment, lower economic security, greater risk of social exclusion. And this spiral is transmitted from generation to generation.
To act on this, Board 2030 has partnered with Fundació Exit, an organization with over 25 years dedicated to reducing school dropout. Professionals from Board companies participate as volunteers throughout the school year, accompanying young people in Training and Insertion Programs (PFI).
It’s not about giving one-off talks. It’s about being there, accompanying them. Showing that options exist that no one had explained to them. Opening a door that these young people didn’t know existed .
Board 2030 worked for over three years before going public. What is seen today is the result of a long process of listening, diagnosing, and building trust.
The idea is for all Board 2030 companies to commit resources, time, and people to a single action, with a single measurable objective.
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A financial director who had never set foot in a PFI center. An engineer who didn’t know that ten minutes from his office there were young people who saw no future in continuing their studies. A marketing manager who discovered that listening to a 16-year-old taught her more about her city than any report.
Board 2030 volunteers return changed. In this way, they get closer to a reality that professional daily life keeps invisible.
Furthermore, volunteers experience a transformative journey:
“You become aware of realities you don’t normally see”
“It’s an experience that changes you”
“You gain more than you give”
Board 2030 puts business leadership at the service of a more equitable city.
Here, leadership is not defined by discourse. It is defined by the ability to act,
collaborate, and generate real impact.
Board 2030 has shown that it is possible for competing companies to collaborate on what matters. For executives managing millions to dedicate time to sit with 16-year-olds who have an uncertain future. For a city to talk less about its problems and start solving them. School dropout is the first collective action. It will not be the last.
Every year, hundreds of young people in Barcelona prematurely abandon their studies due to lack of support and future prospects. Let’s support them.
Barcelona+B was born in 2022 as a public-private alliance with a transformative vocation, following a participatory citizen laboratory that defined its main guidelines. We build purpose, vision, and action together with our strategic partners: B Lab Spain, EADA Business School, and Ferrer.
