De Guindos will collaborate with IESE and the mobile sector is shaken

Another former politician is changing jobs. Former PP minister Luis de Guindos will leave the European Central Bank and will begin collaborating with IESE. A week of changes at the top of GSMA Ltd., the company that organizes the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: John Hoffman will become president and will be replaced as CEO. And the changes also affect the Mobile World Capital Foundation, from which Francesc Fajula is leaving. Meanwhile, Banco Sabadell is starting a new phase with the replacement of its CEO.

Luis de Guindos

Will collaborate with IESE

The Vice-President of the European Central Bank, Luis de Guindos, will begin collaborating in September with IESE, once his term on the ECB board expires on May 31. According to Europa Press, he will be linked to the business school as a distinguished fellow, without formally being a professor.

De Guindos was a minister in the governments of the popular Mariano Rajoy, where he held the portfolio of Economy and Competitiveness between 2011 and 2018. Recently, he has stated on several occasions that politics is a chapter that "is closed" and has rejected returning to it. IESE has stated that De Guindos's participation will provide "a direct and high-level vision" on the financial sector and the international economic context, and that his activity will be fundamentally focused on the Madrid campus. The business school already incorporated in January the then president of the European Banking Authority (EBA), José Manuel Campa, as an ordinary professor in the departments of Financial Management and Economics.

John Hoffman

President of GSMA Ltd.

From July 1, John Hoffman will become president of GSMA Ltd., the commercial and events area of the global association of telecommunications companies that organizes the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, after two decades as chief executive officer. This is a newly created position that will be more related to the global tasks of this worldwide organization designed to represent the interests of mobile phone operators and telecommunications companies in general than to the management of the Mobile World Congress (MWC).

Hoffman will be replaced in the position by Sianne Ryder. For the past twenty years, Hoffman has played a decisive role in shaping the mobile industry and has driven the growth of GSMA's events and services area, according to the organization. One of his tasks as president will be to focus on developing strategic relationships with partners in the host cities of Barcelona, Shanghai, and Doha. Hoffman has been the main public face of the exhibition in the Catalan capital and one of the professionals who has contributed to its continuation.

Since joining GSMA in 2005, Sianne Ryder has led the events and services business units on three continents. One of her achievements was the development of MWC Shanghai. Ryder has also been responsible for projects and business units within the organization for two decades. At the same time, Bob Puglielli will continue to be responsible for the operational execution of the congress, but the name of his position (director of events operations) has also been changed to "reflect his current responsibilities". All changes will officially take effect on July 1.

Francesc Fajula

Leave the Mobile World Capital

Francesc Fajula is stepping down as CEO of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation (FMWCB) this May. Fajula, who took over the leadership in July 2022, replacing Carles Grau, is thus ending an almost four-year tenure at the helm of the public-private entity. During his mandate, Fajula has guided the foundation towards a more humanistic vision of technology, focusing on social impact and services rather than infrastructure.

Among the initiatives launched during his tenure are the creation of Talent Arena, an event dedicated to digital talent held in parallel to MWC, and the Tech & Play festival. He has also promoted the production of the series Day One for Amazon Prime Video and has consolidated sectoral studies such as Tech Hubs Overview and Digital Talent Overview, which is scheduled to be released at the end of May. Under his leadership, the foundation claims to have contributed to the growth of around 300 companies and the creation of 750 jobs in the technology sector.

The FMWCB board of trustees includes the Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Spanish government, along with GSMA, Fira de Barcelona, Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange, Damm, and CaixaBank. This board, currently chaired by the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, will be responsible for appointing Fajula's successor at the upcoming assemblies.

Regarding his next professional step, although it has not been officially announced, the newspaper La Vanguardia reported at the end of March that Fajula is the most likely candidate to lead the Iberian AI gigafactory project. This initiative, supported by a consortium including companies such as Telefónica, Orange, Nvidia, and ACS, aims to strengthen technological sovereignty in Europe, with facilities in Móra la Nova and San Fernando de Henares.

Marc Armengol

CEO of Banc Sabadell

The shareholders' meeting of Banc Sabadell certified the change of the chief executive this week. César González-Bueno has ceased to be the bank's CEO and his position is now occupied by Marc Armengol. If Sabadell had been hiring externally for its last CEOs – González-Bueno, Jaume Guardiola, and Joan Maria Nin –, this time it has opted for someone from within the company. Until now, Armengol, with a 25-year career at Sabadell, had been the chief executive of TSB, the Catalan bank's British subsidiary, which has been sold to Santander for 3.3 billion euros.

Armengol made his debut before the shareholders, who gave him a standing ovation, with a speech at the end of the meeting. He explained the moment of transformation, competition, and the prominence of technology that banking is experiencing. And he committed to maintaining personal relationships with clients and supporting businesses, combining all this with the use of technology, as a bank more closely linked to the territory now that TSB has been sold.

The new CEO did not rule out that the bank may have to sign alliances or make some acquisitions in some of the businesses in which it wants to strengthen its service to clients. In addition to payment methods, one of the areas in which it will focus is the digitalization of business directed at companies and SMEs. "We will not be the biggest, but we will be the closest to customer needs, the fastest to offer solutions, and the most oriented towards anticipating and proposing innovative solutions in a period of rapid change," he concluded in his speech to the shareholders.

Relat, Rodríguez i Casals

New advisors of Roca Group

Roca Group will propose to the company's shareholders the incorporation as new directors of the president of Fira de Barcelona and MatHolding, Pau Relat; the president of the cement company Molins, Julio Rodríguez; and the general director of Editorial Casals, Ramon Casals. The proposal will be presented at the ordinary general meeting on June 18, and if accepted, it will mean increasing the board of directors' seats from 8 to 11, which "is part of the company's growth strategy and the will to strengthen its governance".

The rest of the directors of the highest governing body of the company specialized in bathroom products are the former president of the group Santiago de Gomar, Georgina Barangé, Elisa de Gomar, Silvana Velasco, Josep Roca, Gabriel Pich-Aguilera and Guayente Sanmartín. The president of the company is José María Roca.

Christoph Dieterle

EDreams' Financial Director

eDreams announced the appointment of Christoph Dieterle as new Chief Financial Officer following the personal decision of David Elizaga to leave his post after a long career at the company, although he will continue as a non-executive member of the board of directors. This transition seeks to underpin the online travel agency's new multi-year objectives to reach 13 million Prime members and exceed 270 million euros in EBITDA in fiscal year 2030, as highlighted in the notification sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

Specifically, Dieterle joined eDreams after the acquisition of Budgetplaces.com in 2017, and his last role was Director of Retail Sales and Products at the Catalan-based listed company. Previously, he had served as Chief Financial Officer and, later, Chief Executive Officer of Budgetplaces.com, in addition to developing other roles in the financial management of Expedia Group.