The English Court will have for the first time in its history a female president. The group finalizes the appointment of Marta Álvarez, one of the daughters of former President Isidoro Álvarez, in the group presidency.
His name was already in office a little over a year ago when his cousin Dimas Gimeno presided over the group. Finally, the one chosen to succeed him was Jesús Nuño de la Rosa.
The idea is that the next board of directors that will be held in July address this appointment and “review the company’s governance scheme,” company sources told EL MUNDO.
If the board votes in favor of Álvarez chairing the group, it will now chair the Shareholders’ Meeting that the company usually holds in August. Marta, together with her sister Cristina controls 60% of the shares of El Corte Inglés, if they add the shares they have through Iasa (Isidoro Álvarez SA) and the Ramón Areces Foundation.
“NATURAL SCHEME” OF GOVERNMENT
According to sources from the company, this movement occurs to return to the “natural” governance scheme in the company: a non-executive president representing the ownership of the group (with shares), and two CEOs who are responsible for the management, with executive functions.
Marta Álvarez would be accompanied by the two CEOs (Jesús Nuño de la Rosa and Víctor del Pozo), as was the case during the presidency of Dimas Gimeno -when the Board decided to withdraw the executive functions- in which they performed those functions, Nuño de la Rosa and Víctor del Pozo.
Del Pozo will maintain his duties as CEO of the retail area (retail trade) and thus control all commercial subsidiaries. Nuño de la Rosa will continue to chair four subsidiaries: Viajes El Corte Inglés, Informática El Corte Inglés, Financial El Corte Inglés, and Seguros El Corte Inglés.
FIRST PRESIDENT
If the council votes for her, Marta Álvarez will be the first woman to occupy the presidency of El Corte Inglés. It will be the fifth in that position, after Ramón Areces, Isidoro Álvarez, Dimas Gimeno and Jesús Nuño de la Rosa.
Last year, during the presidency of Gimeno, Álvarez was already proposed to preside over the group, but he did not accept the shareholder disputes between the sisters Álvarez and Dimas Gimeno. This was the origin of strong tensions within the dome that finally ended the dismissal of Dimas Gimeno.
Marta Álvarez has a degree in Law and has worked at El Corte Inglés in recent years, always linked to the Purchasing department. Among other things, it has taken care of rearranging all the brands that the group had to present a more unified offer to customers.
The last year has been of great changes in the group. It launched its first bond issue and has developed a strong divestment plan, such as the sale of Óptica2000 and the placing on the market of real estate assets amounting to some 15,000 million euros. The English Court faces in the immediate future the challenges of its digitalization and its internationalization and has a plan to optimize the workforce that aims to free up resources to improve customer service.
