I never thought that the context in which I would write about boards of directors in Spain would be so critical, unexpected, sad, and with such an uncertain future. Therefore, what I am going to give here is my opinion, since in all humility I admit that I feel unable to anticipate what will be the future of our beloved Spain, of our economy, and of the management bodies of its companies. I can already say that there are enough reasons to hope that we will recover, since we will emerge stronger, as we have done every time we have fallen.
To do so, we will need a united society, in solidarity and with our sights set on the short, but above all, on the medium and long term, in which we walk together towards the same future of prosperity. The governing bodies of our companies and, in particular, the boards of directors will be decisive, as it will be their decisions that will lead us to this new prosperity.
Enrique Quemada Clariana, in his post on 24 April, explained that in two months we have advanced five years in the technological field, referring to teleworking, which is here to stay. But I believe that this statement can be applied to all areas of our lives, and boards of directors will be no exception.
Until two months ago there was a lot of talk in all the forums about how far behind our councils were in gender equality (the latest study I have read about data from the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) stated that 392 female directors were still needed to reach parity on the continuous market.119.5 in the IBEX 35 and 2727.5 in the rest of the listed companies). It was also pointed out by the European Institute for Gender Equality that improvements in this area would generate up to 10.5 million additional jobs by 2050, the employment rate would reach almost 80% and the EU's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita could grow by almost 10% more by 2050.
However, I consider that we have made five years of progress in corporate governance in the last two months and that the boards of our companies will have to adapt not only to achieve gender parity and be more economically efficient, but also to appoint boards of directors with an enormous variety of profiles that, being men and women, bring vital experience, different criteria depending on their age, their sectoral knowledge and their experience in financial and legal matters, risk control, anticipation of crises and decision-making in stressful situations. I am afraid that crisis situations, like telework and new technologies, are here to stay.
I hope that our boards, and those who have to decide on their composition, have learned from this crisis what it would perhaps have taken five years under normal circumstances, and that they will bring in those who have so far been labelled as seniors, whether they are women or men, so that these people with so much life and professional experience are not deprived (as has been the case until now) of bringing all that experience to our companies. I hope that they will be able to sit at a board table and be able to get along with the young people who, full of impetus, ideas and vision for the future, will bring the marvellous experience that their youth provides. Boards of directors must surround themselves with sectoral, financial, legal strategy, control and risk reaction experts, which will inevitably become more and more frequent.
I appeal to all of this in the hope that we Spaniards have historically had an attitude of self-improvement. As Victor Frankl said: "The attitude with which you respond to what happens to you is your ultimate freedom and the one that no one can take away from you". If we are able to respond to this crisis with the same attitude as always, the one that no one can ever take away from us, internalising and using all the wisdom that these two months have brought, there will be hope for Spain, for our economy and for our companies..
Graduate in Law and Diploma in Business Administration and Management from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas- ICADEHe has also completed a Senior Management Programme (PADE) in IESE Business School .
She has been a partner in the area of corporate from Clifford Chance and DLA Piper in Spain, specialising in M&A and head of the corporate legal department of Ferrovial. She has also been an independent director of Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios Socimi, S.A., of Axiare Patrimonio Socimi S.A. and of Moove Cars Sustainable Transports, a proprietary director (on behalf of Ferrovial) of the Polish listed company Budimex and Habitat Real Estate and executive director of CBRE Global Investorswhere he was also a member of its advisory board, steering committee, and General Counsel y compliance officer of this fund manager for Spain and Portugal.