FCC’s new faces at the top

Spain’s FCC has replaced chairman and CEO Baldomero Falcones Jaquotot with former Ferrovial infrastructure CEO Juan Bejar Ochoa as the new CEO, and Esther Alcocer Koplowitz as chairwoman.

Esther Alcocer Koplowitz is the second woman in Spain to chair an IBEX listed company, and will be carrying on the family dynasty into the third generation as she is the daughter of FCC’s major shareholder, Esther Koplowitz Romero de Juseu – often said to be the wealthiest woman in Spain.

Mr Falcones is retiring from FCC but will chair the FCC Foundation, which the company set up some years ago to channel its social action, sponsorship, charity work and corporate social responsibility activities. He became chairman of the FCC board in June 2008, six months after his appointment as CEO.

Mr Bejar has been with the FCC Group since July 2009, when he was appointed executive chairman of Globalvía, an infrastructure concession company owned jointly with Spanish banking group Bankia. In February 2012, he also became chairman and CEO of Cementos Portland Valderrivas.

He joined the Ferrovial Group in 1991 and was CEO of the Infrastructure division and subsequently of Cintra until 2007, spearheading Cintra’s IPO, the creation of Ferrovial Airports and the acquisition of British Airports Authority (BAA).

Esther Alcocer Koplowitz has been second vice chairman of the board of FCC and chair of its appointments and remuneration committee. She is also a member of the executive, strategy, and audit and control committees of FCC.

Ms Koplowitz is a director of Cementos Portland Valderrivas, Realia and Globalvía. Her international experience includes serving as a director of FCC Environment, the UK subsidiary of FCC’s Environmental Services division, and of SmVaK Ostrava (a water company in the Czech Republic). In addition, she is a member of the supervisory boards of Alpine Holding and ASA Abfall Service dealing with infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe.

She represents shareholder company Dominum Desga on the board of directors.

Her mother, Esther Koplowitz Romero de Juseu, will continue as first vice chairman of the board of directors.

FCC’s origins date back over a century, and its core business is in infrastructure, environmental services (water/waste management) and renewable energy.