António Simões will be the Country Head of Santander Spain
Portuguese António Simões, who left British bank HSBC about a year ago, will now be the Country Head of Santander's business in Europe and in Spain.
Santander is preparing to replace Rami Aboukhair as the group’s top executive in Spain. According to the newspaper Expansión, Aboukhair will be replaced by the Portuguese António Simões, who is in charge of the bank’s business in Europe.
The Portuguese manager was hired last year, after leaving the British HSBC. The Spanish newspaper adds that Simões will combine his current duties as the leader of Santander’s European business with those of Country Head in Spain.
With this decision, Santander intends to replicate in Europe the organizational scheme it already applies in other key areas of the group: North and South America. In both divisions, the executive who is in charge of the most relevant country in the region (Sergio Rial in Brazil and Héctor Grisi in Mexico) leads the entire unit.
António Simões will now also take on the first executive line in Spain and will continue to coordinate all the activity in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Poland. The three top managers in the regions – Sergio Rial, Héctor Grisi and Simões – report to the chief executive officer, José Antonio Álvarez.
