Professor Josep Tàpies has held the Family-Owned Business Chair since October 1, 2003. Since gaining a doctorate in Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and an MBA at ESADE, Professor Tàpies has taught General Management in a number of different business schools in both Europe and Latin America, including AESE in Portugal, IDE in Ecuador, PAD-University of Piura in Peru, ISE in Brazil, IAE in Argentina, ESE in Chile, and INALDE in Colombia.

For many years now, Professor Tàpies has worked as a consultant with individual businesses, many of them family-owned, as well as with Spanish and international banking institutions. He is also a member of the board of directors at the Spanish Association of Family-Owned Business Consultants and Academics (CAEF), the Spanish Family Business Network, the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) and the Family Business Network (FBN). Among other areas, he has written extensively on business relations in banks, the financial structure of family-owned businesses and buy-out operations. He has also developed many business cases on financial and general management.