Javier Faus

Javier Faus (born in Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish private equity investor, chairman and founder of the Barcelona-based alternative investment fund management firm Meridia Capital Partners. Active in civic associations, he served as Vice Chairman of FC Barcelona from 2010 to 2015. From July 2019 until July 2022, he served as chair of the Cercle d'Economia, a Spanish think tank that promotes liberal democratic public policies.

Education Faus has a law degree from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, a Masters in International Law from Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.) and an Executive MBA from ESADE Business School (Barcelona).

In 2001, he led a consortium to acquire HOVISA, the real estate company that owned Hotel Arts in Barcelona, managed by Ritz-Carlton, amongst other assets. He subsequently became president and minority shareholder for the company. In 2006, he managed the sale of HOVISA to a JV formed by Host Hotels & Resorts and GIC (Government of Singapore). This deal reached, at the time, the highest price ever paid for a single real estate asset in Spain (417 million euros).

Between 2003 and 2006, Faus was managing partner for Spain and Portugal at Patron Capital Partners, a London-based real estate fund manager.

In 2006, Faus founded Meridia Capital Partner, a private equity fund management firm specialized in private equity and real estate. Its first fund, Meridia I, invested in urban hotel real estate including the W Paris Opéra Hotel, the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Santiago de Chile, and the InterContinental Hotel in São Paulo. In 2014, Meridia Capital launched Meridia II in Spain using the value-add strategy in the commercial property business and subsequently Meridia III (2016) and Meridia IV (2019), all with similar strategies.

Since 2019, Meridia acts as exclusive advisor in Spain and Portugal for Franklin Templeton´s pan-European Social Infrastructure Fund, a fund seeking financial returns while delivering a measurable social and environmental impact.

Faus is also an active business angel in the Spanish start-up arena, having invested in companies such as Cocunat, Colvin Co, AGORA Images and WorldCoo under the umbrella of Mnext Venture Capital.

Between 2010 and 2014, he was a member of the board of directors at Inmobiliaria Colonial, one of the leading public Spanish Real Estate companies. Since 2016, he has been a member of the board of directors of Indukern, a leading Spanish pharmaceutical company.

Faus has won several awards, including the 2002 Deal of the Year by International Hotel Investment Forum and the SAHIC 2011 Award for Best Investor. He also made public that the new management board would be equally gendered: 10 men and 10 women of renowned prestige.

Controversies In 1996, Faus received the direct award and the mandate from the president of FC Barcelona at that time, Josep Lluís Núñez, to start up the thematic venue "Màgic Barça" in the Olympic Village of Barcelona. This investment was planned to be replicated in other clubs of the Spanish premier division. The site did not have the expected success. In 1998, "Màgic Barça" closed and the idea was not replicated for other clubs.

In June 2005, Faus resigned from the management board of FC Barcelona, which was led by Joan Laporta, after Sandro Rosell, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Jordi Moix, and Jordi Monés did so a few days earlier. Faus claimed his resignation was for personal and professional reasons. Along with other resigning members, Faus felt an increasing disconnect from Laporta, and Faus was excluded from sponsorship negotiations with the Chinese government.

In 2010, after the victory of the candidacy presided over by Sandro Rosell to the presidency of FC Barcelona, Faus was appointed economic vice president of the management board. He reformed the accounts presented by the outgoing management board chaired by Joan Laporta, and promoted social liability actions against the former management board that was approved by the members assembly. In July 2011, the management board filed a lawsuit in court. In October 2014, the court dismissed the claim and determined that the overall result during Laporta's mandate had been positive.

In 2010, Sandro Rosell and Javier Faus were the main promoters of the sponsorship agreement with Qatar to incorporate advertising on FC Barcelona's shirts. Faus and Rosell ignored the apparent conflict of interests in which they were involved during the negotiation of the agreement. Faus was a board member of Inmobiliaria Colonial, a company owned by the American fund Colony Capital, which in turn was the owner of 70% of the Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. In December 2010, FC Barcelona signed the agreement to sell the shirt's rights to Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and, six months later, QSI acquired 70% of PSG from Colony Capital. In May 2014, Faus resigned his position as a Colonial CEO, ahead of his hiring by the real estate branch of the investment fund Qatar Investment Authority.

In June 2011, Faus announced the reduction of 50% of the budget allocated to other sports sections and the removal of the baseball section as its maintenance was considered unsustainable. This measure caused controversy because it entailed relatively small savings, as well as because the management board had promised to promote the multidisciplinary sports character of the club during its electoral campaign.

In November 2012, Faus announced that for the forthcoming season, the shirt sponsor would be modified from the Qatar Foundation to Qatar Airways in application of one of the clauses of the initial contract, a clause that was unknown by the journalists and the Barça partners. Faus admitted that it had been by the request from the sponsor, and that the loyalty to a collaborating partner had to be taken into account.

In December 2013, as economic vice president of FC Barcelona, Faus was involved in controversial statements about the renewal of Leo Messi's contract, which provoked the anger of Messi's family, as well as Messi himself. Faus stated on the radio station RAC 1 that, "I would not understand that the club renewed Leo Messi's contract again, because it was extended and improved the previous year" and he recalled, "I do not know why we should do it again, we do not have to submit a contract improvement every six months". Messi's response was that, "Faus does not know anything about football." and that "I remember (to Mr. Faus) that neither I nor anyone in my environment has asked for any improvement or renewal" and, "Barça is the best team in the world and should be represented by the best leaders". In January 2014, Faus qualified his statements saying that there had been no bad faith and that, "Sometimes they say things they do not want to say".

In November 2014, the former candidate for the presidency of FC Barcelona, Agustí Benedito, stated in a press conference that Faus had interests and business in Qatar while he was belonging to the Barça's management board. Javier Faus filed a complaint against Benedito, who refused to retract his statement. The court later dismissed the lawsuit and Faus was made to pay the court costs.