🤓 Bio

Born and raised in Barcelona (Spain), Oriol showed interest in media, arts, culture, travel and meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds, particularly English-speaking, from a very early age.

In 2008, he completed his studies with an associate degree in Media, radio and events production from Escola de Mitjans Audiovisuals (EMAV) in Barcelona. His early work experience was in the field of television and film production, including credits in advertisement for Pepsi or Vodafone, the short film Doll Hospital and different production roles in Barcelona Televisió, local TV channel.

A year later, he is accepted in the program Leonardo Da Vinci (now Erasmus+), a work placement program in Wales (United Kingdom). There he starts his career in the music industry as Promotion Assistant of the local music venue Central Station. Back in Barcelona four months later, Oriol continues collaborating with Welsh artists Heal The Last Stand and Andy Hickie as a Tour and Communications Manager. During this time he is also the Communications Manager for Busker’s Festival Barcelona, in 2009 and 2010.

In 2010, he decides to continue his education pursuing a Bachelor of Journalism from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, with the clear intention of taking all opportunities available to study part of this program abroad.

In the spring of 2011, while finishing his first year, Oriol starts collaborating with the indie music radio scannerFM launching the channel scannerHITS and supporting the social media coverage of music festivals like Primavera Sound and Sónar. In September of the same year, he will start collaborating more actively as a writer and editor, also getting bylines in other scannerFM projects like the city guide SerieBCN or the travel website My Vueling City, in partnership with the airline Vueling.

After finishing the first two years of his studies, Oriol finds the first opportunity to study abroad, as an exchange student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops (Canada), from August 2012 to April 2013. While in Canada, he creates a personal blog (in Spanish) sharing the experience, #fromkamloops. He is also a regular contributor to the student newspaper The Omega. Back in Barcelona in the spring, Oriol continues collaborating with scannerFM that summer.

The next academic year is the second opportunity for Oriol to continue his university studies abroad. As an Erasmus exchange student, he chooses Ghent (Belgium) as his new destination, studying different courses from the Law and Communication Sciences programs at Ghent University. In the second semester of his studies, Oriol is selected as ‘Erasmus correspondent’ for the travel blog Erasmus en Flandes, a project by the Belgium and Flanders Tourism Office in Spain aim to promote Belgium as a destination among young students and travellers. Oriol looks after the content planning, writing blog posts, taking pictures and producing different videos sharing his experience. The following summer, he works with the local Belgian electronic folk-pop band Byron Bay managing their tour to Spain and Andorra including filming acoustic sessions in Barceloneta and a recording in a professional studio.

In September 2014, Oriol is back in Barcelona to finish his fifth and last year in university. Before graduating, he interns at the international organization Casa Asia and manages social media for the beer brand Estrella Damm working with the agency Zoom (now Fuego Camina Conmigo).

The following summer, Oriol is chosen among among dozens of applicants as the representative for Spain in thisisFINLAND Foreign Correspondents’ Programme, a program by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland to introduce the country to young international journalists. During the program, Oriol takes pictures of international artists like Florence + The Machine, Belle and Sebastian, The War On Drugs or Years & Years at the music festival Flow Festival Helsinki 2015 and is the only international journalists covering the convention for Finnish digital creators TubeCon 2015.

Shortly after the experience in Finland, Oriol moves to London (UK) to work as Community Manager (Twitter) for the travel website Culture Trip until he finds an opportunity at the boutique video network MAGNETIC months later. As the Video and Digital Marketing Manager, he is responsible to manage and optimize YouTube channels for different clients, mainly in the music industry: Mahogany Sessions, Lyona, PALM Pictures or Rough Trade, among others.

After over two years in London and a 2-month trip across Canada by train that convinces him to start working towards moving to Canada permanently, Oriol is back in Barcelona for a few months between 2018 and 2019. During this time, he works as Content Manager for the agency LaMagnética, being responsible for the content strategy of the medical brand Tiritas® (HARTMANN Group) and the educational project about the origins of cinema Participa Méliès (“la Caixa” Banking Foundation) and also offering support to Hola Barcelona – the services for tourism from the main public transit operator in Barcelona – on copywriting, social media and community management.

Oriol relocates to Canada permanently in July 2019, finding a new home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His first work experience in the Maritimes is for the tech company Modest Tree as Marketing Coordinator. As the COVID-19 pandemic challenges his personal and professional situation, Oriol persists and finds new opportunities as Media Strategist for My East Coast Experience and Social Media Manager for The Coast.

He joins CTV News in August 2021, working in different production roles for the Halifax bureau. Eight months later, he joins the national product management team working as Digital Product Manager.

Oriol lives as an open bisexual man since 2014, dedicating part of his volunteer time at making queer spaces more welcoming to 2SLGBTQ+ immigrants, first volunteering at Halifax Pride, where he becomes a member of the Board of Directors and co-founds the Immigrant Committee, now independently.

He is also helping international students as a mentor in the Study and Stay™ Nova Scotia Program.

He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and the News Product Alliance.

---

Continue reading: