Oriol was born in Barcelona and went to a ‘frenchified’ school, instilling him with critique, love of knowledge, and a profound feeling of citizenry. Once he finished school he spent a year in Maine, before deciding to study Economics to extend his opportunities.

He managed to occupy seven different posts in the university assembly system. Having seen the inner workings of the university, he then went in search of a dose of reality, entering the working world as an intrapreneur in the dynamic Lindt & Sprüngli Spain, where he did a little bit of everything: from setting up a co-packing activity to hopping in the delivery van to pull in more Caprabo sales points.

A year later, he joined IESE to do an MBA, which not only broadened his mind but allowed him to meet people from many places which enriched him on a personal level. A summer in Henkel (in the Trade Services department helping forge an agreement with Mercadona and learning what he didn’t want to be in life) and a trimester in Los Angeles (to get an inside view of the entertainment industry) were the highlights of these two years.

The arid job market following 9-11 led him to cross paths once again with his mentor from Lindt, now at United Biscuits, where Oriol became Product Manager for the Philippines, global drive brand for the group in Spain and which needed him to be a mini general director for the brand, immersing himself in the value chain and helping the brand grow 13% after a three-year drop in sales.

(Almost) two years later, he felt like an octopus in a garage: too much business and not enough creativity. So he started working at Morillas, where they were building a strategy department. There he learned to be a planner (without knowing that’s what it was called) and became one of the people responsible for an old packaging agency daring to compete in the big leagues with an integrated branding concept. They worked with a never-ending list of organisations: eDreams, Cofidis, Softonic, Sara Lee, Frito Lay, Danone, Borges, Mahou-San Miguel, Codorniu, La Sirena, Dermofarm, Grupo Planeta, Pans & Company, Bacardi, Spanair, Brugal, Areas, Vodafone or the City Hall of Barcelona… not to mention competitions.

Nearly a decade later, looking for new challenges, he returned to the multinational scene for two years, this time in Added Value (a strategic marketing business from WPP) where he had the opportunity to lead the strategy team in international projects for Vodafone, Danone, Grupo Planeta and Nestlé, before HQ decided to close down business in Spain.

His latter experience inspired him to make his own living, creating a personal project in which he combined strategic marketing services with practical tools in personal and team coaching. During this new stage, he continued his classes at IED Barcelona and began to work with agencies that let him carry on his professional development. And that’s how his collaboration with Picnic began in 2015 as a planner, mixing his extensive business knowledge with a creative mind and empathy for the albeit poorly-named ‘consumer’.