César Alierta - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

César Alierta

Encyclopedia

César Alierta Izuel is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

) has been the Chief Executive Officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

and Chairman of Telefónica S.A.

Telefónica

Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...

since July 26, 2000 where he guided the company through a significant Latin American expansion. Mr. Alierta earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) in 1967. Three years after his degree, he earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Career

Mr. Alierta holds a Law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

degree from the University of Zaragoza

University of Zaragoza

The University of Zaragoza or sometimes Saragossa University is a university located in Zaragoza, in the Aragon region of Spain...

and an MBA from Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...

1970–1985 Banco Urquijo (Financial Analyst)
1985–1996 Beta Capital (Founder and President)
1996–1999 Tabacalera
Tabacalera
Tabacalera is a Spanish tobacco monopoly which was established in 1636, making it the oldest tobacco company in the world . In 1999 the company merged with SEITA of France to form Altadis. Its brands included Ducados and Fortuna....

(CEO)
1999–2000 Altadis
Altadis
Altadis is a multinational purveyor and manufacturer of cigarettes, tobacco and cigars. Altadis was formed via a 1999 merger between Tabacalera, the former Spanish tobacco monopoly and SEITA, the former French tobacco monopoly...

(Co-Chairman)
2000– Telefónica (Chairman and CEO)

Main highlights of his presidency at Telefónica

In September 2005, he received the Global Spanish Entrepreneur award in New York, by the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce. This distinction is an acknowledgement for his job as president of Telefónica, leading the firm to entry into the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 index. In fact, Telefónica is the first Spanish company -and one of the very few in Europe to be part of that index, made of the world's 50 most successful, global and largest companies.

In April 2008, he was named president of the Social Council of the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spanish main open university, with over 100,000 students.

In September 2009 he led one of the main global strategic alliances, putting together Telefónica with Chinese firm China Unicom[1]. Both companies agreed to invest in each other an amount of a billion dollars. The most important part of the cooperation agreement involves research, development and innovation, as well as sharing information on knowledge management and new technologies. This alliance allowed Telefónica to strengthen its position as market leader. It also expanded its client base to over 550 million world-wide, including the clients of its Chinese partner.

In 2009 he was awarded the Tiepolo prize. This award is given by the Madrid-Italy Chamber of Commerce and acknowledges the role of Telefónica as one of the leading Spanish global companies.

Also in 2009, the business association Aragón Exterior (Aragonex) acknowledged him as one of the main Aragonese businessmen with a global reach.

In June 2010, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Council of the Americas in New York, for his contribution to the growth and development in Latin America. He was the first Spaniard, and the first non-American citizen, to be awarded by the institution. The award is presented to those who work for the progress and advancement of the continent (source: Europa Press) (source:EFE)
In June 2010, the President of Telefónica was rated as the best chief executive officer (CEO) of Spain by Thomson Extel Survey 2010.

On September 17, 2010, the City Council awarded a César Alierta Zaragagoza with the Gold Medal of the city. The medal will be awarded on October 9 to mark the start of the "Fiestas del Pilar".

On 28 September 2010, he joined the Board of the company resulting from the merger between Iberia and British Airways, International Airlines Consolidate Group (IAG). He became, as well, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Nomination Committee.

Alierta's vision on Communications

Recent declarations to the press have been very controversial in Spain, as he suggests charging content providers, application developers and even search engines. Textual declarations include: "we do everything and they (developers, content providers, search engines...) only have the algorithms", "we've opened an opportunity for clever people to generate applications using our communication channels... and we are lucky to own millions of customers that can use them. We will charge for that", "Cloud computing means that the intelligence is in the net. And the net is ours".

Problems with Justice

According to The Wall Street Journal: "A Spanish court found that César Alierta, chairman of Telefónica SA, enriched himself through insider trading before he joined the telecom company, but it acquitted him on the ground that the statute of limitations had run out".

According to Answers.com: "The charges stemmed from 1997, when Alierta and his wife had formed an investment company that they later sold to their nephew. The investment company purchased a large number of Tabacalera shares immediately preceding the purchase of Havatampa and the subsequent rise in tobacco prices, both of which led to an increase in the value of Tabacalera shares. In early 1998 the investment company sold these shares at a great profit".

External links

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