Juan Luis Cebrián appointed Chairman of EL PAÍS

José Luis Sainz has joined Grupo PRISA as executive chairman of the press division and CEO of El País, whose Board of Directors has been remodeled with Juan Luis Cebrián as Chairman. In his new role, Sainz will drive the overall transformation of the business model of the press division, its integration and the development of new digital technologies.

Sainz has had a successful career in the media sector. At Arthur Andersen he worked as a consultant to PRISA, Grupo Zeta, Diario 16 and ABC, among others, and he later joined PRISA in 1989, where he had extensive experience in the areas of press, radio, audiovisual production, television and the Internet. At El País, Sainz held various management positions, until in 1997 he was appointed assistant general manager at PRISA. He later headed Cadena Ser and the conglomerate Unión Radio, now part of PRISA. He has been CEO of Prisacom, the group's transversal business division dedicated to developing digital businesses, and he also held the same position at Pretesa and Plural Entertainment, PRISA's audiovisual production divisions for film and television.

Over the past two years, José Luis Sainz was general manger of national media at Grupo Vocento, with responsibility for national print media and the digital versions, supplements and magazines, national digital television, audiovisual content production and distribution, radio, classified and thematic channels, entertainment and Vocento's online directories.

Sainz's reinstatement at PRISA occurs in the context of a reorganization of the Board of Directors of El País, which will be presided by Juan Luis Cebrián (CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of PRISA). Also sitting on the board are the President of PRISA, Ignacio Polanco , the former chief editors of El País, Joaquín Estefanía and Jesus Ceberio, and, as external board members, Joseph B Terceiro, Professor of Economics at the Complutense University, and Jean Marie Colombani, who was CEO and Chief Editor of the French daily Le Monde. In the coming weeks, directors of international reputation, specializing in digital technologies, are also expected to join the Board of Directors

Meanwhile, José Manuel Calvo has been named director of communications at PRISA Noticias. He will be reporting directly to the CEO and executive president to lead and coordinate all matters related to corporate communications in the press area, which includes all the general and specialized media of El Pais, AS, Cinco Dias, Le Monde and magazines published by PRISA.