PRISA appoints new group and board secretary and replaces CFO

• The Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of the Group and Board secretary. Xavier Pujol thus ends an eight-year term with the Group. He’s being replaced by Pablo Jiménez de Parga.
• David Mesonero will be the new CFO of PRISA, and takes over from Guillermo de Juanes who leaves the company after a nine-year tenure. Mesonero will be overseeing all the corporate financial departments.

The Board of Directors of PRISA has approved, at its meeting today, changes involving the Company and Board secretary and the CFO of the Group.  

The Board accepted the resignation, for professional reasons, of Xavier Pujol – who till now had served as both the company’s general secretary and as secretary of the Board of Directors – and has proposed Pablo Jiménez de Parga as his replacement as Board Secretary. Pujol had played a decisive role in the financial restructuring, divestment and overhaul of corporate governance undertaken by the Group over the past four years. He thus ends a term of professional commitment to the Group that began in September 2013, when he joined PRISA as Chief Legal Officer of both PRISA Radio and PRISA Noticias.

The Board also approved the appointment of David Mesonero as the new Chief Financial Officer, replacing Guillermo de Juanes, who is also ending his tenure at the Group. De Juanes had been closely involved in key capital increases, divestments and the financial restructuring of the Group, all of which, together, have led to a reduction of debt by 50%. De Juanes joined PRISA in 2012 and, until his appointment as Chief Financial Officer in July 2017, had held the position of Director of Financial and Corporate Operations.

Mesonero, who will now oversee all the corporate financial departments, has a successful track record in the business world, particularly in energy and investment banking. He is also a specialist in capital markets, in M&A and in the design of financing structures.

The Board of Directors thanked Pujol and De Juanes for their work, dedication and the results obtained during the years in which they have been linked to PRISA and has welcomed Jiménez de Parga and Mesonero to the Group.

Biographies

Pablo Jiménez de Parga Maseda (Barcelona, ​​1964) holds a Law Degree, with a Distinction, from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he also completed Doctoral courses in Commercial Law. He subsequently taught as Associate Lecturer of Commercial Law at the Complutense University and at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid.

Pablo has been a practicing lawyer since 1989 and was a member of the Governing Board of the Madrid Bar Association.

He was Managing Partner of the Jiménez de Parga Law Firm for more than 20 years, until its merger in 2019 with ECIJA, a firm of which he is currently Executive Vice President. The firm has offices in Spain, Portugal and 14 Latin American countries, and boasts a multidisciplinary team of more than 750 professionals.

Pablo has extensive experience in advising clients on business and company law, and he has an outstanding reputation for his defense of cases before the Courts of Justice.

In the commercial field, Pablo specializes in advising companies, both Spanish and international, on commercial contracts and corporate law, with particular attention to corporate governance issues. He acts as Secretary of the Board of Directors of numerous companies.

In the procedural field, Pablo has been professionally involved in many of the most notable judicial cases of recent years in the business and company sector, including cases held before the Supreme Court, the National Court and other Courts of Justice.

Pablo also has extensive experience in commercial and sports arbitration. He has been President of the Court of Arbitration of the Madrid Bar Association and, currently, he is an arbitrator of the Madrid Court of Arbitration, of the Arbitration Court of the Madrid Bar Association and of the Spanish Court of Arbitration for Sport.

David Mesonero Molina (Salamanca, 1980) has a degree in Business Administration from ICADE and an Executive MBA from IESE. He has a background as a strategic consultant and investment banker, and specializes in capital markets, M&A and in designing different financing structures.

Currently, he is the Deputy Director of Corporate Development Division in Iberdrola, S.A. and member of the Board of Director of all the Iberdrola´s renewable subsidiaries. He is also member of the Board of Directors of Windar Renovables.

Prior to his role in Iberdrola, David was CFO at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy since December 1, 2018, and a member of its Management Committee since the creation of Siemens Gamesa, having achieved investment grade status (BBB) from the main rating agencies and having refinanced all its debt always under sustainability criteria (ESG), including a ESG linked Credit Facility of €2.5bn. Also, during his period as CFO, SGRE reduced the gross debt by more than 1bn€ and the net debt by €500m applying an strict working capital management.

Prior to his appointment as CFO, David was the Managing Director of Corporate Development and Strategy, leading the merger process between Gamesa and Siemens Wind Power. Following that, he was appointed Chief Integration Officer, overachieving synergy targets of €400m€ of cost reduction, and member of L3AD 2020 program Steering Committee (€2bn€ cost-out program in three years).

In addition, he was named in 2017 one of the 40 most influential leaders in energy under the age of 40 (the Recharge4040 prize). Wind Power Monthly magazine also selected him in 2020 as one of the 15 most influential people in the wind industry.

Mesonero combines his professional career with work in teaching. He is currently a lecturer in Sustainable Finance at IEB.