The Diplomat
The CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz, has been appointed the new president of the Spain-US Council Foundation, replacing Juan Lladó, CEO of Técnicas Reunidas.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, held last Friday in Madrid and attended, among other trustees, by the State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno.
Josu Jon Imaz was Chairman of Petronor between 2008 and 2015 and has been CEO of Repsol since April 2014. Previously, he had been politically active as a member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which he chaired between 2004 and 2008, after having been a member of the Basque Parliament and the European Parliament and Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism of the Government of the Basque Country between 1999 and 2004.
With his appointment, Josu Jon Imaz, who has been elected for an initial period of two years, becomes the eighth president of the Spain-US Council Foundation, after Jaime Carvajal, Antonio Garrigues Walker, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, Juan Rodríguez Inciarte, Juan María Nin, José Manuel Entrecanales and Juan Lladó.
The outgoing President, Juan Lladó, who has held the position for the last four years, thanked the Board of Trustees for the help provided during his years in office, which he defined as “intense and difficult” due to the pandemic, as well as the constant support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, the backing of the Vice-President, Gonzalo Ulloa, and the work of the General Secretaries, the diplomats Manuel Mª Lejarreta and Fernando Prieto, all the members of the Executive Committee and the Foundation’s management team.
Imaz expressed his gratitude for the trust placed in him and accepted “with great honour” the appointment, “committing myself -he said- to do everything in my power to catalyse the extraordinary work that the Foundation has carried out in these 25 years under the leadership of my predecessors”.
The State Secretary, for her part, highlighted the excellent relations between Spain and the United States, not only in the political and economic spheres, but also in the areas of cybersecurity and defence, academic exchange, science and culture.
