We will publish here the farewell communique to Francesc Martínez de Foix, who died yesterday and who is dedicated to his colleagues from the TEB Cooperative Group. The Ramon Noguera Foundation is joining in with condolences to relatives, friends and colleagues for such a sensible loss.
Francesc, company! We will miss you
Francesc Martínez de Foix i Llorens, CEO of the TEB Cooperative Group, left us this morning at age 63 after a month and a half fighting against the sequels that had caused stroke. Throughout his professional career, he has stood out for his commitment with people with intellectual disabilities and with the values of cooperativism and the social economy. And has fought especially for this group to access the world of work, housing and quality services, and enjoy sport and leisure, in short, of a full life. In 2012 he received the Sant Jordi Cross in recognition of this dedication.
His career in the TEB Cooperative Group
He was, as he liked to present, brother of John, for whom he fought, along with his parents, Josep Martínez de Foix and Josi Llorenç, and his brother Alex, to build a better future for people with Intellectual disability Francesc began at TEB as a monitor in the seventies and since then he has worked to generate employment for this group and to defend the right to housing and quality services.
He started directing what was then the Cooperativa Taller Escola Barcelona in 1980 and for almost four decades, with tenacity, teamwork and cooperative values, he led it to what is now the TEB, a cooperative group of social initiative, Formed by 8 cooperatives that group more than 1,000 people, or 1,000 life projects, in his words. Francesc defended a model in which the economic and social side navigate together in the same direction, where the care of people and the quality of life, the defense of rights and support for families, coexist in perfect symbiosis. Professionalism, innovation and business development.
Founder of ACELL and Special Olympics Spain and Special Olympics Catalunya
In the field of sport, he defended the access of people with intellectual disabilities to sports and leisure and actively participated in the foundation of the Catalan Federation of Sports with Disabilities (ACELL), an entity Who presided over for 23 years, until in March 2017 passed the relief to Marina Gómez. He contributed to found Special Olympics Spain and Special Olympics Catalunya, entities of which he was president. In 1992 he promoted the first Special Olympics Games in Barcelona and Vilanova, which meant an advance in the recognition of people with intellectual disabilities.
He also devoted efforts to agglutinate and strengthen the intellectual disability sector, especially from the defense of the right to work. In this sense, he actively participated in the former APPS and Workshop Coordinator (merged with what we now know as Dincat), entities of which he was a member of the Board of Directors and also other initiatives such as the disappeared All Workshops.
Francesc Martínez de Foix was vice president of the Dincat Federation, an entity that brings together the defense of intellectual disability from 2010 to 2014. At the state level, he was part of the Board of Directors of AEDIS, Asociación Empresarial para la Discapacidad. He also collaborated with numerous initiatives in the field of disability, such as the DKV-Integralia Foundation, which was a landlord.
Cooperativism
He was a defender of cooperativism in the construction of a fairer and more egalitarian society, he actively participated in the Federation of Labor Cooperatives of Catalonia, an entity of which he was a member of the Governing Council since 2010. He fostered intercooperation and work in Network with other entities to generate value and employment for people with disabilities. In this sense, the Cooperativa Xarxa Ambiental promoted along with other companies and entities. It also supported entities when they were going through sensitive situations, so that jobs were preserved and also the value of the social initiative in the territory.
"Francesc, company, to the TEB we feel heirs of your untiring struggle. We will find a lot to miss, but we will seek strength in your memory to continue growing this collective project, trying to put your energy and your tenacity. We will work together, families, workers and users, as we have always wanted to do in the TEB, to help make this world a little more just and for people with disabilities to occupy the place that belongs to society. "
The family and their TEB colleagues want to thank all the samples of support received by entities, institutions and people who knew him and loved him.
Thank you so much; We feel very much accompanied.
