Mònica Roca i Aparici
Telecommunications engineer and entrepreneur
Master's degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), since 1995. She is the founder in 2006 and director of the isardSAT group of companies, with headquarters in Catalonia and England, which are dedicated to research in the field of Earth observation through the processing of data from instruments on board artificial satellites, and in the creation of services for forecasting and mitigating the effects of climate change.
From 1995 to 2004, she worked for the European Space Agency (ESA) at its ESTEC technical centre, Noordwijk, the Netherlands, where she was responsible for the altimeter radar system on board the European satellite Envisat.
Along with isardSAT, she has received several awards, such as the recent Salvà i Campillo Entrepreneurship Award, granted by the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineers (Telecos.cat) and the Official College of Computer Engineering of Catalonia (COEINF) in 2018, or the Innovative Company Award in Conciliation and Time, granted by the Barcelona City Council in 2015, among others.
In June 2019, Monica was appointed first vice-president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and president of the Space and Aeronautics commission. Since 8 March 2021, she has been President of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.