Josep Bombardó Navinés, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Fundació Olga Torres (FOT), died on 3 March 2021 at the age of 74.

Josep Bombardó, a Sabadell businessman involved in the textile industry, was renowned for his intelligence and industriousness. These qualities, combined with far-sightedness, a firm commitment to innovation and a constant desire to understand, led him to promote a large number of initiatives in the fields of industry, education and commerce Featured among these are his support for the Fundació per la Indústria (Foundation for Industry), his involvement in the creation of the ESDi School of Design and the Barcelona Moda Centre, a business centre for the fashion industry. He chaired the Gremi de Fabricants de Sabadell (Manufacturers’ Guild of Sabadell) and was always a staunch advocate of sustainability, the environment and territorial rebalancing.

“Our commitment to research allows us to make a clear and decided appeal to increase the resources destined to medical research based on investment and sustainability criteria, learning to do more with less and within a framework of public-private partnership.

We do so with the conviction that this is the only way to improve the collective quality of life by ensuring health and through the consideration that such investment creates wealth and quality employment, allowing talent to be attracted and retained. Only in this way will we be able to play a leading role in determining the future. “

Excerpt of the speech given at the academic ceremony for the presentation of research grants by the Fundació Olga Torres held at the auditorium of Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell on 20 May 2019.

In his personal dealings, Mr Bombardó was known for his firm but thoughtful personality and openness to dialogue. These qualities allowed him to motivate employees and create consensus.

In the private sphere, Mr Bombardó was a person who valued family and a civic-minded citizen who loved his city of Sabadell and showed an interest in everything related to it.

Mr Bombardó had been a trustee of the FOT since its founding in 2003 by Dionisio Torres Segura, an industrialist who bequeathed his entire estate to medical research for the purpose of improving people’s health. After the death of Mr Torres, with whom he had built up a great friendship, Mr Bombardó was appointed chairman by the board of trustees, a role which would be renewed several times in succession and which he willingly accepted owing to his loyalty to the commitments he had taken on with his friend. At the helm of the board, he created the structure that was required to foster cancer research by bringing on board new partners and by creating the scientific committee. Like the board of trustees, this committee has since that time altruistically advised the FOT regarding its lines of work, focusing them on colon cancer research and promoting public-private partnership.

The Government of Catalonia, in response to the request by the Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí de Sabadell (the corporation that runs many of the city’s public healthcare facilities) and supported the main research institutes and prestigious scientists in the field of medicine and different figures, entities and institutions, bestowed the Creu de Sant Jordi award of merit to the FOT in 2107 in acknowledgement of its work.

For the eighteen years that Mr Bombardó chaired the foundation, the FOT financed more than thirty research projects into colorectal cancer through an endowment of approximately two million euros, the results of which have brought about advances in the treatment of colon cancer, the establishment of targets for its detection and diagnosis, and the development of new therapies and drugs.

In the civic sphere, the FOT has collaborated with local entities on such initiatives as holding Science Nights, for which it introduced a prize for articles disseminating work on colorectal cancer research. It also contributed with the campaign to detect colorectal cancer carried out by Sabadell’s Hospital Parc Taulí among the residents of its catchment area by donating a video colonoscope.

Josep Bombardó was a leader and role model His leadership has shown us the road ahead.

The Board of Trustees of the Fundació Olga Torres

March 2021