Gonzalo Gortázar, new non-executive chairman of VidaCaixa

BarcelonaGonzalo Gortázar, CEO of CaixaBank, has been appointed non-executive chairman of VidaCaixa, the insurance company owned by the bank. The decision was made by the financial institution's executive committee. Gortázar, who previously held this position from 2014 to 2021, remains CaixaBank's chief executive and replaces Jordi Gual at VidaCaixa due to the expiration of his term.

The appointment will be effective April 15. VidaCaixa's board of directors expressed its gratitude for Gual's contribution to the insurer's growth and emphasized that during his tenure, the company "has consolidated its leadership in the Spanish insurance sector and enhanced its contribution to making the CaixaBank Group's bancassurance model a success in terms of business and customer service."

VidaCaixa, of which Javier Valle is Managing Director, is the life and pension insurance subsidiary wholly owned by CaixaBank. It also owns 49.92% of SegurCaixa Adeslas. In Portugal, it owns 100% of the share capital of BPI Vida e Pensões.

Gortázar, who has been CEO of CaixaBank since June 2014, is also Chairman of CaixaBank Payments & Consumer and a director of Banco BPI. He was Chairman of VidaCaixa from 2014 to 2021. Previously, he was Chief Financial Officer of CaixaBank, and from 2009 to June 2011, Managing Director of Criteria CaixaCorp.

He holds a degree in Law and Business Administration from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE) and a Master's degree in business administration with distinction from the INSEAD business school. He began his career at Bank of America and subsequently held various positions in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley until mid-2009, when he joined Criteria. He has also served as Senior Vice President of Repsol, when La Caixa was a shareholder, and as a director of the financial group Inbursa, Erste Bank, SegurCaixa Adelas, Abertis, Port Aventura, and Saba.

For his part, Gual, who will continue to be associated with the La Caixa Group as a director of Telefónica in Brazil and Spain, will join the board of the consulting firm Oxera Consulting LLP, specializing in competition and regulatory issues, as of May 1. He will also collaborate on business development in Europe and, most notably, in Spain following the recent opening of offices in Madrid. The company has 10 offices in the United Kingdom and major countries in the European Union. Gual holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California (Berkeley) and is a professor in the Department of Economics at the IESE Business School.