Frederic Borràs, Honorary President of the College of Chartered Accountants of Catalonia and Numerary Member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), and Mariàngela Vilallonga, Professor Emerita of Classical Philology at the University of Girona, President of the Prudenci Bertrana Foundation and also Numerary Member of the READ, presented their latest works, “Pinceladas de vida” (Brushstrokes of Life) and “Retrat interior” (Inner Portrait), respectively, on Tuesday, November 11, in a joint event organized by the READ and the Círculo Ecuestre of Barcelona, held at the headquarters of this historic Catalan institution.
Dr. Frederic Borràs
The session featured remarks by Anna Gener, Member of the Board of the Círculo Ecuestre, and Alfredo Rocafort, President of the Governing Board of the READ, who introduced the two authors. Borràs and Vilallonga, in turn, presented each other’s works—continuing a collaboration that recently led them to co-curate the exhibition “Entre dos segles”(Between Two Centuries) at the Tortosa Museum.
Borràs’s new book recounts experiences, reflections, and stories gathered throughout his long professional and personal journey. “Across the eleven chapters into which the work is divided, we encounter friends, travels, gastronomy, thoughts, sorrows, joys, changes, and both professional and private memories—all that the author has sought in the depths of his mind and heart to pour onto paper,” said Vilallonga during the presentation. Her own poetry collection includes compositions written between Girona and New York between 2003 and 2009, preserved until now in a computer archive. After stepping back from some of her professional responsibilities, the academic wished to share the fruit of that stage of her life—the inner portrait of her fifties—through a series of poems already praised by critics for their elegance and strength.
The first Spanish professional to join the Transnational Committee of the International Federation of Accountants, Borràs uses his book to reflect on the decades that have transformed the world, weaving together his professional experiences and relationships while also sharing his lifelong passion for art and gastronomy. From her New York period, Vilallonga had previously published “Això no és Barcelona: Visions catalanes de Nova York” (This Is Not Barcelona: Catalan Visions of New York), a work compiling the writings of around one hundred Catalan authors—some anonymous—on their impressions of the city. Earlier, New York had already featured in her study on the Jocs Florals (Floral Games) held there in 1956.
Dr. Mariàngela Vilallonga
Borràs is a member of the Global Council of the Association for Corporate Growth, the leading international network of professionals specializing in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate development. He was recently named Honorary Member of IECnet, one of the world’s major audit, tax, and consulting firms, following a long and successful career during which he served eight years on its Board of Directors and chaired its Audit Practice. The academic worked for nearly four decades at KPMG, where he became Managing Partner for the offices in Barcelona, Girona, Palma, and Andorra.
Vilallonga, meanwhile, combined her final years of teaching with her role as Minister of Culture of the Government of Catalonia, a position she assumed after resigning as Vice President of the Institute of Catalan Studies. She also serves as a board member of the Grup62 publishing group. In 2016, she was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest honor granted by the Catalan Government, for her research on Latin humanistic literature from the Crown of Aragon.
