Professional profile

The biography and professional profile of each of the Directors of Línea Directa Aseguradora are shown next.

 

Alfonso Botín-Sanz de Sautuola y Naveda 

Chairman

Graduated Magna Cum Laude in Economics and Classical Civilizations from Boston University. 

He worked at Salomon Brothers, Corporate Finance and M&A until 1995. Since 1995 he has managed several areas of Bankinter within the Business Banking Division and was placed in charge of creating the Venture Capital Division.

He is currently Director of Bankinter S.A. and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Linea Directa Aseguradora S.A. 

Alfonso Botín-Sanz de Sautuola y Naveda brings extensive experience in both the financial and insurance sectors to the Board of Directors of Línea Directa Aseguradora.

 

Patricia Ayuela de Rueda 

CEO

As for her academic training, she is an Industrial Engineer from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI-ICADE and completed an Executive MBA at IESE Universidad de Navarra. She also has a background in Digital Strategy at Harvard Business School, in Corporate Finance at Wharton Business School and in Global Strategy and Corporate Governance at Ross School of Business (University of Michigan).

Patricia Ayuela de Rueda, has extensive experience in the insurance sector, where she has spent most of a professional career that began at BBVA, managing projects involving Internet banking services from 1998 to 2000. She joined Banco Santander in 2000 as Head of Development for E-Business and Mobile Business to manage information systems projects related to Internet banking and mobile telephony, and she was the marketing workgroup leader at the Mobey Forum.

In 2003, she joined Línea Directa Aseguradora, where she assumed several responsibilities. She has been the Manager of Línea Directa's area of Motor and Digital Transformation during six years. 

Her leadership in strategic scenarios and in the analysis of their impacts on the business helps generate new strategies and business opportunities in collaboration with the rest of the Management Committee, and she has participated very actively in the strategic design of the Company's plans in recent years.

 

John de Zulueta Greenebaum

Independent Director

John de Zulueta holds a degree in Contemporary History from Stanford University (California) and an MBA with honours from the Columbia University in New York. 

His long professional career includes time as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco, as well as his time as Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo in Barcelona, Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes Spain, Vice Chairman of Schweppes in Southern Europe and CEO of Schweppes S.A.

He is currently Vice Chairman of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation and trustee of the NTT Data and Caser Foundations.

As for his experience in the insurance sector, he was CEO of the Sanitas Group (Bupa Group) in Spain for 14 years, and non-executive Chairman during four years.

He is currently Founding Partner of Point Lobos, a healthcare management consultancy and Honoured President of the Círculo de Empresarios (Business Roundtable), of which he was Chairman between 2018 and 2021.

John de Zulueta Greenebaum brings extensive experience in both the financial and insurance sectors to the Board of Directors, as well as in-depth knowledge in corporate governance.

 

Ana María Plaza Arregui

Independent Director

Ana María Plaza Arregui holds a Degree in Economic and Business Sciences (Company branch) from the University of Córdoba. She has studies in Geography and History from the University of Córdoba and UNED.  She has completed the Program for Management Development at the IESE, Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at HARVARD Kennedy School, the Digital Business Senior Management Program at The Valley Digital Business School, and ESADE's Training Programme for Directors and Corporate Governance.

Ana María Plaza Arregui's professional career began in the world of auditing and subsequently, as CFO, she has maintained close contact with auditing, as well as accounting and finance.

She is currently chair of the Audit Committee of several Boards of which she is a member.

She has an in-depth knowledge of all issues related to the review of financial and non-financial information, risk identification and internal control systems, regulatory and criminal compliance, as well as maintaining a relationship with external and internal auditors. 
She also has knowledge of the insurance sector and financial services, accumulated during her years of executive experience because of her relationship with both worlds.

 

Fernando Masaveu Herrero

Propietary Director

Fernando Masaveu holds a Law Degree from the University of Navarra and is currently the Executive Chairman of Corporación Masaveu, S.A., Chairman of Cementos Tudela Veguin, S.A., Masaveu Internacional, S.L., Oppidum Capital, S.L. and Sociedad Americana Masaveu Real Estate US Delaware LLC (Masaveu Group), Director at American Cement Advisors Inc., AEGEAN International and AEGEAN SGPS, Director at Flicka Forestal, S.L. member of the General and Supervisory Board of EDP, S.A. and member of the Strategy and Performance Committee and the Maturities Committee, Chairman of the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation and the San Ignacio de Loyola Foundation, and Patron and member of the Executive Committee and the Heritage Committee of the Princess of Asturias Foundation.

He was previously a director of Banco Herrero y Rioja Alta, S.A. and Vice Chairman of the OFICEMEN, the Spanish Cement Association.

He joined the Masaveu Group in 1993, where he has discharged various functions, currently holding the Chairmanship of the Group, which operates in various sectors such as energy, financial, industrial, cement and real estate. He represents the Masaveu Group in numerous national and international companies, foundations and corporations.

 

Rita Estévez Luaña

Independent Director

Rita Estévez holds a Degree in Economics and Business and a Law Degree from the Comillas Pontifical University ICADE and has completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the IESE Business School and ESADE's Training Programme for Directors and Corporate Governance. 

She has extensive experience on boards of directors and as proprietary director in subsidiaries of Deutsche Bank, as independent director in Telefónica Consumer Finance and CEO and Chair of Experian. She is currently Chair of the Association of Spanish Companies Against Fraud. 

She was CEO in Spain of GE Financial Services for more than six years, so she is fully aware of the particularities of the insurance sector.

She has experience in the management and definition of corporate risk policies and regulatory compliance, as well as in the establishment of control measures to ensure the adequate corporate governance of the Company.


Marina Specht Blum

Independent Director

Marina Specht Blum holds a Degree in Communication and International Journalism from the University of Newcastle, and she has several postgraduate degrees from IMD, ISDI, IE University and MIT.

Currently, she is Non-Executive President of McCann Worldgroup Europe, a company of which she was previously CEO for four years. She also has a long record in international insurance groups. In addition, she is non-executive member of Board of the CEOE, patron of the NGO Save the Children and member of the Board of Directors of Adigital.

Previously, she was a Global Client Partner of ZURICH Insurance and CEO of MRM Spain (2013-2020), Regional Director of MRM EMEA (2006-2013) and Founder and President of Reporter (1998-2006).

Marina Specth Blum’s professional experience is particularly noteworthy in the field of business strategy, digital marketing and the insurance activity at the global executive level, as well as sustainability and digital transformation.

 

Iñaki Berenguer Mediavilla 

Independent Director

Iñaki Berenguer Mediavilla is a telecommunications engineer, hold a master’s degree and Doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He is managing partner of the venture capital fund LifeX Ventures and non-executive chairman of iPronics Programmable Photonics, advisory board member of the Rafael del Pino Foundation, Chairman of the Iñaki Berenguer Foundation and visiting professor at MIT.

Previously, he was founder and CEO of CoverWallet in the United States, a technology startup quite disruptive in the insurance sector, and of Klink in the field of telecommunications and technology. He also held senior positions in HP, Intel, Microsoft and McKinsey.

Iñaki Berenguer Mediavilla has ample experience in the international insurance sector, in Artificial Intelligence, digital transformation and disruptive new technologies, especially in fields such as Analytics and Big Data.

Cuenta con experiencia en el sector seguros a nivel internacional, en Inteligencia Artificial, transformación digital y nuevas tecnologías disruptivas, especialmente en áreas como Analytics y Big Data.