Fran Valmaña assumes Eiken's address

After thirteen years at the head of the audiovisual cluster and digital content from Euskadi, Itziar Mena gives way to Valmaña and returns to EITB.

Eiken, the audiovisual and digital content cluster of Euskadi has begun a new stage, Itziar Mena Director since its foundation in 2004 leaves the direction of the cluster to return to the EITB chain, where she already worked as head of news before her stage at the head of the address of the cluster. Now it will be Fran Valmaña, an entrepreneur with a wide international career behind him, who will take command of the cluster and assume the challenge of continuing with the work carried out in recent years of opening and modernization of the association.

Mena leaves the cluster after thirteen years of great work and effort, in which he has defended and worked for the companies of the Basque sector, positioning it within the actors referring to it. In this time we have seen Eiken grow, which began its journey as the Basque audiovisual cluster and that after its expansion process in 2015 aspires to be the first cluster of cultural and creative industries of the Basque Country. Thanks to this process, currently EIKEN is made up of 128 members that reach a joint turnover of 793 million euros and cover the entire range of creative industries: audiovisual, music, video game;, language industries, marketing and advertising, digital content and cultural innovation.

Fran Valmaña, founding partner of FJ Communications, a company created in 2004 and with headquarters in Madrid and Miami, has previously worked among others for the multinational Visa and for the American television network NBC News. Due to his professional career he has lived for more than 25 years between the US, United Kingdom and Spain, which has endowed him with great experience in the international sector, and thanks to which he will contribute to Eiken his knowledge and business vision.

"The audiovisual and digital content market is experiencing a vertiginous transformation full of challenges, but also of opportunities. To respond to this panorama, our road map must strengthen the new lines of work of the cluster putting the focus on the support of the ICCS sector, the cooperation between the partner companies and the internationalization of them," said Valmaña.