Indra’s board of directors has called an extraordinary meeting this Thursday afternoon to study the resignation of Cristina Ruiz as CEO of the Digital Transformation and Information Technology consulting area, which is brought together in the Mindsait subsidiary, sources confirm. company internals. Ruiz leaves office for personal reasons, the same sources say. At this time, the council is still meeting analyzing the situation.
Cristina Ruiz shared the management of the company with Ignacio Mataix, the other CEO, responsible for Transport and Defense. Both executives had been sharing the direction of the Spanish technological multinational since 2021 under the mandate of the president, Marc Murtra, who does not hold executive powers. Although the co-governance structure had worked well during these months, in fact the company recorded record revenues last year, the friction between the two executives has been inevitable due to the peculiar structure imposed by the board of directors after Murtra’s arrival at the company.
The board now plans to appoint Luis Abril, number two de Ruiz, as the new executive director and CEO of Mindsait, to ensure the continuity of the strategic plan. Abril is a member of the management committee and was responsible for the area of Energy, Industry, Consumption and Business Solutions. Ignacio Mataix will remain as the sole CEO responsible for all areas, according to sources from the technology group.
Ruiz’s resignation will allow the company to simplify its structure and will strengthen the figure of Murtra. This industrial engineer, with extensive professional experience and close ties to the PSC, was appointed in May last year at the request of the Government through a proposal from the State Industrial Participation Company (SEPI), the company’s largest shareholder with a stake of 18 .7% of the capital. His appointment, replacing Fernando Abril-Martorell, caused a stir in the financial markets, which saw the operation as an attempt by La Moncloa to control the company. The then Executive spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero, had to go out and explain that after the movement there were no “political readings”.
After a few weeks of tension, Indra’s board of directors finally appointed Murtra as chairman of the group in May 2021, but stripped him of executive powers and appointed two CEOs. The company has lived through busy months since then. The appointments committee of the technology group’s council objected to Murtra’s appointment and when it ratified his appointment, it did so by limiting his powers. Since then, the CEO has moved to try to recapture the executive power that presidents have traditionally had at the company.
At the end of last December, the defense company SAPA acquired 5% of Indra for 90.8 million euros. The Basque company thus became the firm’s third shareholder. In addition, SEPI, the state’s industrial arm, announced a couple of months ago that it will increase its stake in Indra’s capital to 25%. A movement that was interpreted as a maneuver by the Government to control the council. After the announcement, investors punished the company on the stock market with sharp falls. The truth is that both movements in the capital will cause the shareholders’ meeting to approve a new structure in the board of directors with the appointment of new directors.
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