A Catalan at the head of the Family Business Institute

BarcelonaBusy week in the offices of large Catalan and Spanish companies. While last week the Catalan perfume company Puig restructured its leadership, this week it was Endesa's turn, which will have a new CEO from April, and Criteria, which has restructured its board. The IEF will also have a new president, this time Catalan, for a period of two years. And the Catalan telecom company Parlem regains Pérez-Mas as CEO amidst disputes with Avatel. These are the most notable hires of the week.

Eloi Planes will be the next president of the Family Business Institute

As reported by l'ARA, Fluidra president Eloi Planes, has been proposed by the board of directors of the Family Business Institute (IEF) to replace Ignacio Rivera as president, whose term expires this year. The appointment will have to be approved by the IEF's assembly of members – which will be held in Barcelona –, the highest decision-making body of the entity, which will meet in May. Planes, president of the Catalan pool giant Fluidra, is currently a member of the IEF board, and has long been rumored as one of Rivera's possible successors at the head of the association. Rivera took over the presidency of the entity in May 2024, succeeding Andrés Sendagorta, president of Sener. The stipulated terms for the presidency at the IEF are two years and non-renewable, according to the institution's statutes.

Eloi Planes (Barcelona, 1969) is an industrial engineer from UPC and holds a master's degree in business management from Eada, and began working at the family business in 1994. In 2006, he was appointed CEO of the company, already renamed Fluidra, and in 2007 he led its stock market listing. Since 2016, he has been the executive chairman of Fluidra, which in 2017 announced its merger with the American company Zodiac, making it a leader in the sector and paving the way for its inclusion in the Ibex-35 in 2021, the selective index of the Spanish stock market that groups the largest listed companies. A giant with more than 6,500 employees worldwide, more than 2,100 million in annual turnover, subsidiaries in 47 countries, and 36 production centers.

José Bogas will cease to be CEO of Endesa on April 28

Endesa's current CEO, José Bogas, will step down from his position at the company's general shareholders' meeting on April 28, thus concluding his nearly 12-year tenure as the energy company's chief executive. Endesa published this information this week to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), stating that Bogas will become an external director, but without providing details about his successor.

Bogas thus leaves the executive tasks of a company where he has led the transformation for more than a decade – with three terms – in a context marked by the energy transition, the impulse of renewables, and the electrification of the economy. As an external director, Bogas will be able to remain linked to the company, without executive functions, but will be able to facilitate the transition to the new CEO. A position that, although it is not yet known who it will be – his appointment will depend on the main shareholder, which is the Italian electricity company Enel –, names have already begun to emerge, such as that of Gianni Vittorio Armani, as reported by El Confidencial.

Criteria appoints José María Méndez as CEO

The board of directors of Criteria, the investment arm of the La Caixa Foundation, has promoted the current general director, José María Méndez, to the position of CEO, thus becoming part of the company's governing body. Méndez was appointed general director last May, after a period as deputy to the previous CEO of CriteriaCaixa,  Àngel Simón, who was dismissed. This appointment, which concludes the restructuring of the company's top management, represents recognition for the work of this executive, who is in charge of the day-to-day management of Criteria, according to sources from the entity.

At the same time, the board of the Foundation has appointed as independent directors of Criteria the Iese professor Nuria Chinchilla, venture capital expert Julia Salaverría, and auditor Xavier Brossa. They replace José Antonio Asiaín, Marcos Contreras, and Jean-Louis Chaussade, who have completed their 12 years in office and therefore lose their independent status, according to the entity's statutes. 

Pérez-Mas regains executive functions at Parlem

The current CEO of the Catalan telco Parlem, Xavier Capellades, has presented his resignation this week and it will be the company's president and founder, Ernest Pérez-Mas, who will regain executive functions and replace him. This change occurred amidst negotiations with Avatel for a possible merger, a preliminary agreement that was made public in December, and which was now in full audit (due diligence). Just the day after the governance change, the breakdown of negotiations between the two companies was made public, so for the moment Parlem will continue its path alone.

Xavier Capellades took over as CEO of the telecom company in June 2024, but had already been part of Parlem's management team since 2023. On the other hand, although Ernest Pérez-Mas had retired from the executive frontline, he has been "very involved" in the negotiation with Avatel, and it is

With these changes, the board of directors of the Parlem group is made up of four members: Ernest Pérez-Mas (executive president), Albert Buxadé Herrera, Carme Hortalà Vallvé, and Ona Capital Privat SCR, S.A., represented by Oriol Lobo Baquer.

Qonto appoints Lorenzo Pireddu new general manager for Southern Europe

The fintech Qonto has appointed Lorenzo Pireddu as General Manager for Southern Europe to drive the company's growth strategy in the region. The executive will oversee operations in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, where there are more than 8.8 million companies and where Qonto will increase its investment by 24% year-on-year.

A graduate in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan, Pireddu has over 15 years of experience scaling technology companies in highly regulated markets and has held positions such as General Manager of Uber Italy for more than six years.

José María Torres, re-elected president of Conpymes

José María Torres has been re-elected as president of the National Confederation of SMEs (Conpymes). José María Torres's candidacy was the only one presented in the electoral process for the renewal of positions on the Confederation's board of directors and executive committee, which opened on October 16th. This will be José María Torres's second term as president of Conpymes, which has not made public the names of the rest of the new board of directors. Torres, who has held the position since November 2021, is a businessman in the technology sector, founder of the Numintec group.

However, this re-election did not please the majority of organizations that are part of it, including the Catalan Pimec, which was the promoter of Conpymes in order to counterbalance the CEOE in Madrid, and has added more tension within the organization. Relations with partners began to deteriorate when Torres organized a trade mission to Israel in November, amidst full tension between the executive of Benjamin Netanyahu and that of Pedro Sánchez.