The current president and CEO of the Spanish airline Iberia will leave his position this Friday. Javier Sánchez-Prieto announced last May that he would leave the company by his own decision, joining as CEO of the group specialized in assisted reproduction Ivirma starting this month.
He also dedicated a few words to the company: “It has been an honor for me to be in charge of Iberia these years. I feel very proud to have been part of the team that has managed to continue with the transformation of Iberia until it became one of the best companies in the world”, said Sánchez-Prieto in a statement collected by Europa Press.
After having been linked to the field of commercial aviation for a decade, where the International Airlines Group (IAG) has been final, Fernando Candela, director of since 2020, will lead the airline from next Monday, July 17, until 2023 to put an end to his professional career in the iberia group.
IAG seeks a suitable replacement
During the presentation of the quarterly results with the media, the CEO of the ‘holding’, Luis Gallego, reported that this temporary appointment of Candela gives the company room to “think about the future” and what they want from then
“It is an important decision to find who is going to take Iberia to the next phase, because a process like this has to be done well and it is one of the most important in the group,” he added.
Meanwhile, among Candela’s first tasks at the helm of the company will be the repayment of Iberia’s debt and continue with the negotiations to complete the purchase of Air Europa by IAG, an operation in which he has used these months under the Galician leadership. “Fernando Candela is an extraordinary professional and has been a key player in IAG and in the Iberia Group,” said Gallego, who assured that he is “the best person to lead Iberia in the coming months.”
Candela new director of Iberia
Candela has been Level’s CEO since 2019 and IAG’s Director of Transformation since 2020.
With almost thirty years of experience in the aviation sector, he is an industrial engineer from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and has completed various training programs for executives at centers such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Instituto de Empresa (IE) or IESE. . Throughout his professional life he has also worked in companies such as Uralita or Andersen Consulting.
“There is, of course, no better finishing touch for my professional career than directing Iberia, the leading airline in Spain and one of the most outstanding companies in the country, an example of efficiency in the international arena,” Candela said last May.
