Santander has appointed Ángel Rivera as the new CEO in Spain, replacing António Simões, who had taken office in April 2021 and who will maintain functions as regional manager in Europe. The relief is accompanied by other changes in the leadership and is announced a few days before Héctor Blas Grisi becomes the CEO of Santander.
To date, the new CEO in Spain held the position of director of Commercial Banking in the country and will have the function of promoting the business and accelerating commercial execution plans. He will continue to report to Simões, who will supervise the activity both in Spain and in the United Kingdom, Poland and Portugal.
As part of the changes, Santander has decided to give greater visibility to Cristina Ruiz, with whom Rivera will work more closely. Ruiz, who has been director of Transformation since September and who has responsibility for Technology, Operations, Human Resources and Organization, will add to her positions the direction of private business.
Rivera is a person from Santander, with thirty years of experience in the financial sector and a long career in the bank, which he joined in April 2013 to take charge of distribution in the branch network in Spain. He was also general manager of the group's Commercial Banking division between 2015 and 2017 and has participated in the transformation of the bank's business in Mexico.
Santander's board of directors has also approved the appointment of Mahesh Aditya as head of group risk from March 2023. Aditya joined the group in March 2017 as head of risk of Santander Holdings USA, the group's parent company in United States, and in 2019 he became CEO of Santander Consumer USA.
Aditya is an American executive with experience in entities such as Visa, JP Morgan, Capital One and Citibank. In his new functions, he will be responsible for supervising the risk and compliance functions in the different countries and businesses of the group. He will work in Madrid and replaces Keiran Foad, who will leave the group to return to the UK.
Other changes stemming from the revamp announced today include the appointment of Bruce Jackson as head of the US auto business and CEO of Santander Consumer USA. Jackson joined the group in 2021 from JP Morgan.
All these movements occur a few days before the incorporation as of January 1 of the new CEO of the group, Héctor Blas Grisi Checa, who had been CEO of Santander Mexico to date and responsible for the North American region.
Grisi will be responsible for all regions, countries and global businesses. He will succeed José Antonio Álvarez, who joined the Group in 2002, was appointed CFO in 2004 and became CEO in 2015.
