01 May 2014, News Wires – Spanish oil major Repsol has conceded to an enduring shareholder push to separate its chairman and chief executive roles.
The company has named Josu Jon Imaz, executive director of its industrial and new energy unit, to the latter post while Antonio Brufau will stay on in the chairman role.
The new leadership strategy “is being implemented at the right time, once an adequate compensation has been obtained for the expropriation of YPF and Repsol is in an ideal position to face a new expansion,” Brufau said in a statement.
“Today we enter a new phase with a new executive structure where the joint contribution of the chairman and chief executive will enrich the company and drive future progress.”
Imaz holds a doctorate in chemical sciences from the University of the Basque Country and graduated from the faculty of chemical sciences San Sebastian.
Inaz joined Repsol’s Petronor unit in 2008, where he dealt with modernisation and efficiency issues, and has run the industrial and new energy division since 2012.
During that time he oversaw the €3.1 billion modernisation of the Cartagena refinery and the construction of a €1 billion fuel-oil coking plant.
Brufau called Imaz “a professional with a brilliant trajectory at Repsol whose technical and human capabilities, youth and sense of belonging at Repsol makes him the perfect choice as chief executive to build the company’s future.”
Repsol in February approved a compensation deal worth $5 billion relating to Argentina’s 2012 expropriation of the Spanish company’s former controlling stake in shale-rich YPF.
Shareholders including Mexico’s Pemex, which holds more than 9% of Repsol, was among shareholders that had butted heads with Brufau and had been been rumoured to be scoping out methods for his ouster.
– Upstream