The board of directors of Indra has appointed Josep Maria Recasens as the new CEO of the company this Tuesday, replacing José Vicente de los Mozos, who leaves the position after three years and after working with as many presidents. The appointment comes at the proposal of the Appointments Committee, which spent last week choosing its candidate for the position.
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The decision was made unanimously and includes the co-optation appointment of Recasens as a new member of Indra’s board, the company explains to the CNMV. The board has also approved the new executive services contract, which will take effect on June 17 “to ensure an orderly transition and the transfer of responsibilities” after De los Mozos’ departure.
Born in Girona in 1976, Recasens is one of the Spanish executives who has gone the furthest in the automotive sector. Closely linked to the former CEO of Seat and Renault, Luca de Meo, he has once again followed in his footsteps and left this industry. With an international profile, Recasens is currently the strategy director of the Renault group, CEO of its electric car division Ampere, president of Renault Spain, and president of the manufacturers’ association Anfac.
The new CEO is an industrial engineer from the University of Girona and holds a master’s degree in Automotive Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and an MBA from ESADE Business School. He joined Seat in 2002 and held responsibilities in technology, product, and international projects areas before taking charge of the Strategy area. He has an international profile away from political affiliations.
His appointment comes just a week after the company announced De los Mozos’ departure, whose term ended on June 30 and who would have liked to continue in the position. The replacement is a government decision, the main shareholder through SEPI’s 28%, and is agreed with the new president, Ángel Simón, who is accelerating changes at the company’s top management with the aim of starting work after the summer on the new strategic plan.
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De los Mozos’ business plan, Leading the Future, ends this year without Indra having been able to undertake a major transformative operation and with the merger with EM&E stalled. One of the company’s challenges will be to rebuild the relationship with the sector and define its identity as a driver of the defense sector. Part of the reflection involves orienting activity towards technology or continuing with the plan to gain productive capabilities.
An executive in tune with the new president
Another of Simón’s objectives is to restore harmony in management after recent internal divisions, for which a trusted executive has been chosen. Indra has gone several years without a president and CEO duo with shared visions. Marc Murtra, now president of Telefónica, first coexisted with two CEOs and then with De los Mozos. The previous president, Ángel Escribano, lost confidence in his CEO in the weeks when the government paused the merger with EM&E.
The next step will now be the shareholders’ meeting on June 30, which will serve to stage the beginning of a new era. There, shareholders must ratify the appointments of Simón and Recasens as president and CEO. There are also two vacant seats to be filled on the board following the departure of the Escribano brothers and the resignation of a board member, Ángeles Santamaría.
The changes come just twenty days after the Escribano brothers sold their 14% stake in Indra for nearly 900 million euros and left the board of directors. Ángel Escribano had stepped down as president a few days earlier, amid SEPI’s reservations about the merger of Indra with the family company EM&E. The operation would have given the Madrid businessmen a stake comparable to SEPI’s.
