The Diplomat
Former Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya has been hired as an external advisor by French dairy products multinational Danone, according to La Información.
González Laya’s appointment comes seven months after she was relieved of her post by José Manuel Albares.
Danone reported that she will be part of a group of experts in which there are ten other people who meet three times a year to ensure that the company achieves the objectives it has set to be an ‘Enterprise à Mission’, i.e. a company with a purpose, in line with a law passed in 2019 in France to transform the business model in order to have a positive impact on a social and environmental level.
The company specified that the former minister is part of this committee and receives a per diem for it, but is not an employee of Danone. It also stressed that the signing has nothing to do with the brand in Spain, but with the company on a global level.
The company stresses that “in order to become a purposeful company, it is necessary to have a group of experts who meet three times a year to ensure that the company is faithful to this business model. Laya is one of the members of this committee and receives a per diem for this, but she is not a Danone employee”.
The former minister will combine her work as an advisor with the post of dean of the Paris School of International Affairs and chair of the European Commission’s Committee of Wise Men on the future of the Customs Union.
Arancha González Laya is charged in the case opened for the allegedly irregular entry into Spain in April last year of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, to be treated in a hospital in La Rioja, which triggered a serious diplomatic crisis with Morocco.
