Àngel Simón, from water and La Caixa to defense

BarcelonaÀngel Simón (Manresa, 1957) starred last April in one of the most talked-about divorces in the Catalan and Spanish business scene, when he was dismissed as CEO of Criteria, the investment arm of La Caixa. A long relationship with the chairman of La Caixa and Criteria, Isidre Fainé, had been broken. And one of the sparks that put an end to a mandate that lasted about 15 months was the dismissal of José María Álvarez-Pallete at the helm of Telefónica – in which Criteria holds a stake –, in agreement with La Moncloa by Simón and behind Fainé's back, according to various sources. For a year now, Simón, a director accustomed to interacting with Spanish and Catalan socialist governments, had disappeared from the public scene. And now he reappears in the midst of the power struggle at Indra, a company set to lead the defense business, with the State, through SEPI, as the main shareholder (28%).

Before making him leave his post at Criteria, this company, in an unusual move in the discreet universe of Miró's star, contradicted a statement about the investment in the steel company Celsa, which it had announced as practically done a few days earlier. This was one of the signs of the divorce between Fainé and Simón, which later materialized. The chairman of La Caixa considered the steel company's deal to be a poor fit for his investment strategy. Hence his anger when the investment was announced as done and also the subsequent "clarification" statement. And the dismissal of the chairman of Telefónica, a director highly valued by Fainé, and replaced by another person linked to the socialist orbit, Marc Murtra, was another point of discord.

Simón has accumulated a long career at the helm of Aigües de Barcelona (Agbar), of which he was president and positioned as a global benchmark in innovation management. He was also vice-president of Suez, the owner of Agbar after La Caixa sold its stake to him. Now this business belongs to the also French Veolia, of which Criteria owns 5%. And he led and won the legal battle against the concession of the management of the former Aigües Ter Llobregat (ATLL) to Acciona, which, after years, resulted in the return of this company to the orbit of the Generalitat following a Supreme Court ruling, and is now renamed ATL (with a single L)).

Change of strategic plan

A civil engineer, and from Manresa like Fainé, who had him among his reference executives, during his time at Criteria he made many investments. Among them, he stands out for increasing his stake in Telefónica to 9.9%, in collusion with the Spanish government, which wanted to counter the entry of Saudi STC into the capital. In a public appearance in Barcelona, he raised the possibility of entering the defense technology business. But the fact is that the relationship with Fainé cooled and this is demonstrated by the fact that once Simón was dismissed, Francisco Reynés, president of Naturgy, was appointed vice-president of Criteria – another of the reference executives of the president of La Caixa – and, recently, he has just reinforced José María Méndez as CEO.

In addition to rolling back investments announced during his tenure, such as Europastry, La Caixa has remodeled its roadmap. A few months ago, the 2025-2030 strategic plan, which Simón had presented, was rewritten and aligned more with that of the La Caixa Foundation, its owner, which has had Josep Maria Coronas as general director since January 2025, another of Fainé's trusted people. Criteria has the most important portfolio of business stakes in Spain, with a value of around 40,000 million euros, from whose dividends it feeds the social work of the foundation, one of the most important in Europe.

A deep connoisseur of the public and private sectors, Simón was manager of the Metropolitan Area (AMB) under the presidency of Pasqual Maragall. In the mid-90s, he joined the Agbar group, where he was responsible for, among other tasks, expansion in Latin America. In September 2004, he was appointed general director of the group. In 2006, he led Agbar's first major European operation in the United Kingdom, with the acquisition of Bristol Water. In 2008, he added the responsibility of director-general of Agbar to his role, which he held until his appointment as president. From his time in Latin America, Aguas Andinas in Chile remained, one of the largest water management companies in the region. After Suez Environnement took control of Agbar, in 2010 he assumed the presidency of Agbar and since 2013 he held the executive vice-presidency of what is now the also French multinational Veolia, in charge of Southern Europe and Latin America. In January 2024, he was appointed CEO of Criteria, until April 29 of last year.