Elena is currently the Director of Partnerships, EMEA at FC Barcelona. She has worked at the Club for 8 years, starting first in the digital team where she led the commercial efforts and then transitioning to the Sponsorship team, where she now leads both the business development and partnership activations teams. Elena is committed to securing strategic partnerships with the best-in-class brands in the world. She is responsible for key Partners such as Spotify, Philips Ambilight TV, 1xbet, Estrella Damm, Cupra, Whitebit, Caixabank, Herno, Assistència Sanitària, Rilastil, GLS, among others.
The partnership with Spotify aims to bring the world of music and football together by creating opportunities for the iconic Barça jersey to become a space that can celebrate artists from across the world. The jersey campaigns featuring Drake, Rosalía, the Rolling Stones and Karol G have set a new standard within the sports entertainment industry. The “Rosalía Motomami” campaign received a Cannes Bronze Entertainment award for its fan engagement and community building. Featuring Rosalia’s album logo on the front jersey of both men’s and women’s teams, the kits celebrated the one-year anniversary of the album and the pop star’s huge success on Spotify.
Elena’s areas of expertise are business development, digital, strategy, and sports marketing. She is passionate about driving the sport industry forward through strategic and innovative partnerships that truly make an impact.
Prior to FC Barcelona, Elena worked for Google at their European HQ in Dublin, as an Agency Strategist, driving incremental business growth for small & medium businesses for the Spanish Market.
Elena Valls is originally from Barcelona, Spain, and studied at ESADE Business School where she majored in Business Administration. She holds a Master of Science in Marketing Management (ESADE) and a CEMS Master in International Management (RSM, Erasmus University). She won first Prize Ex-aequo in Economic Investigation for her socio-economic analysis of the financial system’s fragility since the crash of 1929, which was praised in the national newspaper La Vanguardia by Harvard Business School, Dr. Pedro Nueno. She has lived in different countries such as the Netherlands, the US and Ireland and speaks 4 languages.
