Pedro Duque succeeds Jordi Hereu as president of Hispasat

The Board of Directors of Hispasat, a Spanish satellite communications operator, has approved the appointment of former minister and astronaut Pedro Duque as the company's new president.

The decision came after an extraordinary meeting of the Shareholders Meeting in which the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI), a shareholder of Hispasat with 7.41%, has proposed Pedro Duque to preside over the operator, replacing Jordi Hereu. Duque assumes what has been called by Hispasat itself as a “new professional challenge” with the “firm commitment to consolidate and increase the value of the company for shareholders and for the country.”

Aeronautical engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), as an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) carried out two space flights in 1998 and 2003. Since then and until 2018, Duque continued to be linked to space, performing different functions, both management and operational, in the ESA and how executive president from the private satellite company Deimos Imaging. Between 2012 and 2014 he was a director of AENA Airports, until its partial privatization. Between June 2018 and July 2021, the new president of Hispasat was Minister of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain.

The appointment of Pedro Duque as president of Hispasat is accompanied by the appointment of two new directors: Therese Relatives, at the proposal of Redeia, and Carlos de la Cruz, at the proposal of CDTI. Therese Jamaa is vice president of the Spanish Red Cross Foundation (since May 2022), member of the Board of Directors of Aigües de Barcelona (since June 2023) and member of the Diversity Advisory Committee of Caixabank (since December 2022). For his part, Carlos de la Cruz is an Industrial Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a master's degree in Business Management “International MBA” from the Business School.