Pasqual Maragall i Mira (born January 13, 1941 in Barcelona) is the 127th President of Generalitat de Catalunya (the government of Catalonia in Spain), and the former (115th) Mayor of Barcelona from 1982 to 1997.
Trained in economics and law, he was active in politics in Barcelona for more than three decades. Among his many achievements, Maragall presided over the organizing committee (COOB’ 92) for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics; served as President of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union between 1996-1998, and was appointed doctor honoris causa of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
On October 20, 2007, Maragall announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and established the Pasqual Maragall Foundation for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease in April 2008. Maragall was featured with Massachusetts ADRC neurologist E. Teresa Gomez-Isla, MD, PhD, in a TV documentary on the disease in 2008. The program was awarded the Boethringer Journalist Prize in Medicine in 2009.
A related documentary entitled Bicycle, Spoon, Apple was screened at the 58th San Sebastian International Film Festival in September 2010.
