José Plà Barber
President Elect

During the Board  meeting in Tallinn in May, José Pla Barber, EIBA’s President-Elect,  presented  the city of Valencia - the third largest in Spain with a population of 800,000  and 1.5 million people in the metropolitan area - with a historic past that goes back to two thousands years when it was founded by the Romans. Valencia is also known as a first-class cultural city with 35 museums, 66 art galleries and 19 theatres.  Its gastronomic reputation is much broader than the famous paella and can be tested in nearly 1500 restaurants and more than 400 cafetarias. With  more than 300 days of sunshine in the year, its 16 ‘blue flag’ beaches draw large crowds.

Valencia is also known as the city of  Arts and Science and the largest cultural educational complex in Europe with its Science Museum “Principe Felipe”, L’Hemisféric, L’Oceanografik - The largest marine park in Europe, etc. Valencia hosted the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007 and has been selected as host city for the 33rd edition in 2009. The Formula 1 “Grand Prix of Europe” will be held there from 2008 to 2015.

The University of Valencia started in 1499 as the “Estudi General de València”, initially dedicated to the studies of medicine, humanities, theology and law; Today it has become a modern European university and covers almost every branch of teaching and  research. It has about 45,000 students on three campuses and a teaching staff of about 3,500. The Faculty of Economics counts  8,800 students and delivers 6 Official Degrees, i.e. in Economics, Business Administration, Actuarial Sciences, Marketing, Tourism and Business Science, together with a double Degree in Business and Law, an International Master in Business Administration and 3 International Double Degrees: GEE / GEDE / IB&M.

For the venue of the conference Joé Pla Barber has opted for the Fundación Universidad-Empresa, which is located in the historical city centre, close to the historic buildings and monuments, such as the University of Valencia itself. The facilities have modern technical equipment with 22 lecture rooms, 2 computers rooms, a library, an assembly hall and conference room, a hemi-circular room and open-air spaces.

Valencia is
HISTORY, AVANT-GUARDE, TRADITION, GASTRONOMY, NATURE,  NIGHTLIFE and (International Business) KNOWLEDGE.

The meeting of EIBA-35 is planned for December 13-15, 2009.

Danny Van Den Bulcke

EIBA Chairman

Although more information will be provided about the Porto 2010 Conference  in Tallinn and the next EIBA-zine, it may be useful to tell something more about Dr. Ana Teresa Tavares who has kindly accepted to host the EIBA conference, eleven years after she was one of the ten Ph.D students who were selected for the Doctoral Tutorial of the European International Business Academy (EIBA) at the University of Manchester in 1999. 

Over the years she presented numerous papers at conferences of EIBA and the Academy of International Business (AIB), several of which were later published in refereed journals and special edited volumes. Ana Tavares’ publications and activities are highly appreciated in her field and she is regarded as a respected and influential colleague. That she is following the most recent developments very closely is reflected in her papers about the roles of multinational subsidiaries, the impact of FDI on technology, competitiveness and clusters.

Apart from her publications Dr. Ana Tavares has been very active as an organizer of conferences (EUNIP in 2003, the Iberian IB Conference in 2005), as a reviewer for a high number of important journals, and as a consultant for organizations such as UNCTAD. Her role as the National Representative of Portugal in EIBA and her work as track chair at the EIBA conference in Fribourg, Switzerland in December 2006 was much appreciated. Clearly the EIBA members can be more than confident that the Porto Conference will be another highlight in EIBA’s almost 40 years of activities. The older EIBA members will certainly recall the 19th EIBA conference organized in 1993 by Vitor Corado Simoes in Lisbon and will be thrilled to go back to such a hospitable country as Portugal.