The decision, proposed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Universities, was announced after the plenary session of the Valencian Government. The spokesperson for the Consell and Minister of Agriculture, Water, Livestock and Fisheries, Miguel Barrachina, specified that Gandía's appointment decree also includes an acknowledgment to the outgoing rector, Mavi Mestre, for her services to the institution.
Born in Ontinyent in 1965, Juan Luis Gandía is a professor of Financial Economics and Accounting at the Faculty of Economics. He holds a degree and a doctorate in Economic and Business Sciences from the UV, where he received an extraordinary award. Throughout his 34 years of dedication to the university, he has consistently been involved in fundamental academic activities, assuming leadership responsibilities.
His career includes teaching in various undergraduate and postgraduate programs, leading projects, and coordinating a consolidated teaching innovation group, with six recognized quinquennials. His research has focused on the impact of new technologies on the transparency and reliability of corporate information, the relationship between auditing and the quality of financial information, and the textual analysis of non-financial data, with five research sexennials and one transfer sexennial.
In the professional sphere, he has held positions such as a member of the Board of Directors of Caixa Ontinyent and its Executive Committee, and a member of the Directing Council of Asepuc. In management, he served as vice-rector of Economy, Infrastructures and Information Technologies. He has been a member of the Claustro since 2009.
Gandía won the elections for the Rectorship of the Universitat de València in the second round on March 12, securing 58.6% of the votes against the professor of Philosophy of Law, Ángeles Solanes, who obtained 41.4%.
“"The university community has decided with its vote to consider that there was a model that required an institutional change, a way of understanding the university, and that is what it has expressed."
Following his victory, Gandía emphasized that the university community had opted for a change in the way the university is understood, committing to lead this process with responsibility and camaraderie.
