Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol

Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol (Barcelona, 1964) is a Catalan political activist, currently president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC). In 1991, he received a degree in Political Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. An Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, he has also taught at other universities.

He was the leader and spokesperson, with Àngel Colom, of the Crida a la Solidaritat (Call for Solidarity) from 1983 until its dissolution in June 1993. Linked for many years to Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, between 1996 and 2004 he was a board member of the Catalan Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1996 he was named assistant director of the Jaume Bofill Foundation, and then its director in 2001. He left the foundation in 2010 to take on a position as aide to the Ombudsman of Catalonia, Rafael Ribó, ex-leader of the ICV eco-socialists.

In addition to contributing periodically as an analyst of social and political issues in various media, between 2004 and 2006 he coordinated the creation of one of the five areas of the Pacte Nacional per l'Educació (National Education Accord), specifically the one that laid out the foundations for a public education system. In 2008, he was the coordinator of one of the four areas of the Pacte Nacional per a la Immigració (National Immigration Accord), in particular the part that addressed the need to adapt social services.

On May 16, 2015, Jordi Sànchez took over the presidency of the ANC from Carme Forcadell, after having been elected by a broad majority of the members of the group's National Board, meeting in Sant Vicenç Hall in the castle at Cardona despite the fact that the candidate who received the most votes from the organization's members was the US-born publisher and writer, Liz Castro. Nevertheless, Sànchez was considered a consensus candidate, and had been supported by the outgoing Executive board.