Nadal to head Telefonica IR

Ivan Castano, PR Week UK, Friday, 03 December 2004, 12:00am,

Madrid: Spanish telecoms group Telefonica has put Javier Nadal at the helm of institutional relations, in a new department which will also handle the group's charity activities in Spain and internationally.

Nadal, formerly president of Telefonica Peru, reports to chairman Cesar Alierta and will supervise Francisco de Berjia, director of IR.

The new unit connects Telefonica with a range of national and international political, economic, cultural and social agents for the common pursuit of PR and sponsorship projects. One sees the group sponsor a new Spanish dictionary, due to launch next year, along with Spanish language academies in Spain and Latin America.

Nadal will oversee charitable activities under the Telefonica Foundation, which has over E5 billion in its coffers and engages in social responsibility and cultural projects around the world.

Telefonica, one of Europe's biggest phone companies, has a corporate communications department in Madrid led by Luis Abril and Marisa Navas. Mauricio Fernandez and Miguel Angel Garzon handle national and international communications respectively.