Sareb’s Board of Directors nominates Javier García del Río as CEO

The Board of Directors at Sareb has nominated Javier García del Río to become the company’s chief executive officer. His appointment should be approved at the General Shareholders’ Meeting due to be held in October 2020.

García del Río is currently Sareb’s Executive Managing Director following his appointment in February and is responsible for the company’s seven functional business areas: Portfolio Management; Finance and Management Control; Business Management; Real Estate Development and Asset Management; Loan Management; People, Processes and Technologies Management; and Real Estate Asset Management. Under this structure, the Legal Services and Secretary to the Board; Internal Audit; Compliance and Corporate Relations; and Sustainability and Communications departments will report to Executive Chairman Jaime Echegoyen.

Changes to the Board of Directors

Javier García del Río’s appointment to the board coincides with the resignation of two proprietary directors; Francisca Ortega Hernández-Agero, a representative for Banco Santander, and Joaquín Vilar, appointed on behalf of CaixaBank. Independent director Antonio Merino also left after completing a maximum five-year term of office. To fill these positions, the Board of Directors has put forward two new candidates: Javier Torres on behalf of the FROB (the Spanish Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring) and Alberto Valdivielso as an independent.
Javier Torres holds a degree in Economic and Business Sciences from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, is a member of the High Corps of Spanish State Economists and Trade Experts and boasts 30 years’ experience in the financial sector. From 1986 to 2016 he worked at Banco Santander where he was Deputy Assistant Managing Director and also held other senior positions in business and risk management, such as Head of Enterprise-Wide Control and Internal Risk Management. From 2017 to 2019, he was also FROB’s Director of Resolution and Strategy and a member of the organisation’s Management Committee.

Valdivielso has a degree in Economic and Business Sciences from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense and is a member of the High Corps of Spanish Public Administration Technicians. After working for the public authorities for more than 30 years, he has held positions in various different Spanish ministries including Finance, Public Works and Defence. From 2001 to 2018 he was Secretary General for the Directorate General of State Heritage. Valdivielso has combined his work with sitting on the board of directors for various companies, including Empresa Nacional de Innovación, S.A., Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea and Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Españoles, amongst others.
Sareb Executive Chairman, Jaime Echegoyen, thanked Francisca Ortega Hernández-Agero, Joaquín Vilar and Pedro Antonio Merino for the work they have carried out as company directors. “Their work has been instrumental in helping us carry out our divestment mandate and has helped to further strengthen Sareb’s good governance standards,” he stressed. Echegoyen also welcomed Javier Torres and Alberto Valdivielso, stating that they would “make a valuable contribution to the Board of Director’s vision thanks to their extensive experience.”