Philanthropy
Luis y Antonio
Portabella
The Luis y Antonio Portabella Foundation is a foundation whose primary purpose is to finance high-level studies and reward research works through the attribution of awards and scholarships.
.avif)
Luis Portabella
In March 1996, Ricardo Portabella decided to create a foundation in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in honor of his grandfather – Luis Portabella – with the principal purpose of financing high-level studies and rewarding research works by the attribution of awards and scholarships.
Luis Portabella was born in Figueras, a province of Gerona, in 1894 to a family of Catalan lawyers. He worked as a lawyer in Figueras until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
After the end of the war, in 1940, his whole family moved to Barcelona where he started a career as a business leader, mainly in Danone S.A. Until his death he was one of the most important shareholders as well as Chairman of the Company.
Influence of Albert Camus in the values of the Foundation and principle of the meritocracy.
.svg)
Ricardo Portabella, Founding Chairman of the Foundation, was heavily influenced by the humanist work of the French author Albert Camus. For Ricardo Portabella, this author was not only a literary reference but mainly a philosophical guide in which education and knowledge are the instruments to achieve prosperity for humankind.
Albert Camus, was a son of the French meritocracy, he dedicated his Nobel Prize to his teacher who believed in him.
Here is the speech written by Foundation’s Chairman and reading during the official award ceremony scholarships on 28 February 2019:
"The Rebel has been a source of inspiration of mine throughout my childhood and has guided me greatly on my attempt to make society a more just and equitable community.
I understood clearly, that in order to provide a better and more prosperous future to the generation that followed, I had to act swiftly and decisively.
We live in an egocentric socio-economical system that is all but generous, with a growing disappointment in the institutions that manage the relations between us. These circumstances reinforce our individualism, both at a personal level like at the State level.
The previous generations, although less conscious than we are today, have given us the foundations to act and evolve. Our capitalist system is tested daily and yet it adapts to and overcomes these tests. It fulfils its objective of optimising its resources as well as redistributing the wealth that it creates, leaving it to the individual to decide how to.
I am therefore convinced that the best and most efficient way to nurture individuals towards realising the idea of having a more just and universal society is through a structured and bolstered university system.
I consider the University of Luxembourg to be the right institution for this, as it embodies all the values needed to prosper as well as practices the academic rigor required to give its students the tools to shape, as of this day, our tomorrow."
Our Purpose
The Foundation doesn’t discrimate any students about nationality, gender, and academic field; since the 3 faculties of the University of Luxembourg are represented in the student grant programs:
.avif)
Faculty of Humanities,
Education and Social Sciences
.avif)
Faculty of Science,
Technology and Medicine
.avif)
Faculty of Law,
Economics and Finance
Discover the impact of Luis y Antonio Portabella Foundation.
