Joaquín de Fuentes Bardají and Cristina Vidal Otero appointed to the Sareb Board of Directors

At the Company’s General Shareholders’ Meeting, the Sareb Board of Directors put forward the appointment of Joaquín de Fuentes Bardají and Cristina Vidal Otero, currently both on leave from their positions as public prosecutors, as proprietary and independent directors respectively. The new Board members will replace Eduardo Aguilar Fernández, who has reached the end of his five-year mandate, and Idoya Arteagabeitia, who stepped down for personal reasons.

These appointments – approved at the Sareb General Shareholders’ Meeting, the Company’s highest decision-making body – welcome two professionals with a wealth of experience and technical expertise in both the public and private sectors to the Company. The number of members sitting on the Board of Directors will continue to be nine. As well as Chairmen Javier Torres and CEO Leopoldo Puig, there are currently four proprietary directors and three independent directors.

In 2022, the Company brought the operations of its Board into line with its new shareholder structure, in which the FROB has a 50.14% holding, and implemented a new remuneration policy in compliance with Royal Legislative Decree 1 of 18 January 2022. Under this new framework, which involved reducing the number of Board members from the previous fourteen to the current nine, the total amount paid out in Board Member remuneration was more than 40% lower than the figure approved in 2021.

Joaquín de Fuentes Bardají is a public prosecutor who has worked throughout his career in a number of areas concerned with representing the interests of state law in both regional and institutional public administrations, as well as in publicly-owned companies, corporations, foundations and regulatory bodies. Some of his positions have included General Secretary at RENFE and Head of Legal and Regulatory Compliance at Telefónica. From 2004 to 2012 he was both a public prosecutor and ex officio a member of the State Council. He is currently Head of Public Law at the law firm Escalona & De Fuentes.

Cristina Vidal Otero is also a public prosecutor and boasts a wide range of experience in areas relating to corporate governance, regulatory compliance, listed companies and regulated bodies. She is currently Head of Financial Regulation at the law firm Ramón y Cajal. Throughout her career, she has also lectured at several public and private universities.