Mercè Franquesa has a degree in Architecture from the ETSAB,and a project management qualification from the UPC’s Department of Management. She completed the executive training of the management development programme at IESE Business School.

She was the manager of the Alonso-Balaguer architectural firm (1999-2000), the director of several companies in the real estate sector (2001-2008), the general director of the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC) (2009-2016) and the general secretary of the Cercle d'Economia (2020-2022), where, in 2018, on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary, she curated the "Thinking Barcelona" debate series on cities, urbanism, infrastructure, housing, environment, governance, culture, tourism, health, research, innovation and new economic sectors.

She was a member of the Governing Council of the Lloc Nou SCCL housing cooperative (2004-2007), a director of the Spanish electronic certification company Firmaprofesional (2010-2016), a director of the Catalan Foundation for Technical Arbitration (FPCAT) (2009-2015), a member of the Board of the Cercle de Cultura (2018-2022) and a member of the Executive Council of the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB) (2018-2022).

In the area of education, she coordinated the launch of online courses at the Josep Lluís Sert Professional Practice School of the COAC (1998-2000) and was a professor of the master's degree in Integrated Construction Management: Building Construction Engineering at La Salle Business Engineering School (2006-2008), a member of the jury of the Teaching Award of the Cercle d'Economia Foundation (2020-2022) and a co-director of the training days of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) (2020-2022).

She has also been a member of the jury for several awards recognising successful careers in business (José Manuel Lara Award, Reino de España Award, El Periódico Company of the Year Award), as well as the secretary of the jury for the first editions of the Cercle d'Economia Award for European Construction.