The Diplomat
Iberdrola has agreed to separate the positions of executive chairman and CEO of the company, appointing Armando Martínez Martínez, until now general manager of Business, to this new position, while Ignacio Sánchez Galán will remain as executive chairman, reports Europa Press.
The energy company yesterday informed the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) of the appointment of Martínez, who has also been appointed as a director of the company, with the qualification of executive, by the co-optation procedure and at the proposal of the Appointments Committee. He thus fills the vacancy left by the removal of Francisco Martínez Córcoles from his position as director, who has placed his position at the disposal of the board to facilitate the changes in the company’s governance.
With the new appointments, the company is trying to satisfy two of the major demands of some investment funds in recent years: a greater distribution of power at the top of Iberdrola and the appointment of a number two as CEO, a position Galán had held since 2001, five years before he was elected as Iberdrola’s new chairman to replace Íñigo de Oriol.
Galán, 72, who came to the energy company from the telecommunications sector, was re-elected as executive chairman by the general shareholders’ meeting in 2019, a mandate that expires next year.
For his part, Martínez had held the position of chief business officer since November last year. Previously, he had been director of Networks Business at the company and also director of Liberalised Business.
Born in Miranda de Ebro, the new CEO of the energy company is an industrial engineer, specialising in electricity from the University of Valladolid. Between 2002 and 2014, he held responsibilities at Iberdrola Mexico, where he reached the position of general manager. He has also been the driving force behind the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, based in the Basque Country, a global technology centre that will define the electricity grids of the future.
With the appointment of Armando Martínez as CEO, the number of members of Iberdrola’s Executive Committee is also fixed at six, with the two company executives, Manuel Moreu Munaiz, Juan Manuel González Serna Vocal, Ángel Jesús Acebes Paniagua and Anthony Luzzatto Gardner.
The changes in Iberdrola’s organisational chart come shortly after the National High Court confirmed the dismissal of the case against Sánchez Galán in relation to the hiring of police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo.
