Hispasat approves the appointment of Pedro Duque as president and renews two directors

The new members of the board of directors are Therese Jamaa, at the proposal of Redeia, and Carlos de la Cruz, on behalf of the CDTI

MADRID, 19 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The board of directors of Hispasat - Redeia's satellite communications operator - has approved this Tuesday the appointment of the former Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities Pedro Duque as the new president of the company at the proposal of the State Society of Industrial Participations ( SEPI), as reported by the company in a statement.

"This decision came after an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders' meeting in which SEPI, a shareholder of Hispasat with 7.41%, proposed Pedro Duque to preside over the operator, replacing Jordi Hereu (appointed at the end of November as Minister of Industry and Tourism)", Hispasat indicated.

However, Pedro Duque's proposal to preside over Hispasat by SEPI was advanced in government sources this past Monday and confirmed this Tuesday morning by SEPI itself.

In this context, 89.68% of Hispasat's shareholding belongs to Redeia - through Red Eléctrica Sistemas de Telecomunicaciones (Restel) -, while SEPI owns 7.41% and the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) has the remaining 2.91%.

However, it is worth remembering that the SEPI - dependent on the Ministry of Finance - controls 20% of the share capital of Redeia, while the CDTI is attached to the portfolio that Duque directed during his period in the Government (between June 2018 and July 2021 and in two different legislatures).

Duque is an aeronautical engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and as an astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA) he made two space flights in 1998 and 2003.

From then until 2018, Duque remained linked to space and held different functions, both management and operational, at ESA and as executive president of the private satellite company Deimos Imaging.

Between 2012 and 2014 he was a director of Aena Aeropuertos, until its partial privatization, while between June 2018 and July 2021 he was Minister of Science and Innovation.

"Pedro Duque now assumes a new professional challenge in continuity with his career, with the firm commitment to consolidate and increase the value of the company for shareholders and for the country," added Hispasat.

The board of directors of Hispasat has also approved the appointment of Therese Jamaa (at the proposal of Redeia) and Carlos de la Cruz - by the CDTI - as directors.

For her part, Jamaa is vice president of the Spanish Red Cross Foundation (since May 2022), member of the board of directors of Aigües de Barcelona (since June 2023) and member of the diversity advisory committee of Caixabank (since December 2022). .

In that sense, Jamaa replaces Constantino Méndez on the board of directors of Hispasat, who died last August and who was "a very beloved person in the sector", as various sources have indicated to Europa Press.

Meanwhile, Carlos de la Cruz is an industrial engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and has an international master's degree in business management (MBA).