Juan Astorqui, Burson-Marsteller’s chief executive for Spain and
Portugal, is the front runner to land the top communications job at Caja
de Ahorros de Madrid, Spain’s second biggest savings bank. The bank is a
long-standing client of B-M in Spain.
No appointment has yet been confirmed by the bank but the chosen
candidate is expected to take over officially from Elias Ramos as
director of communications this month.
Heading a department of 15 staff, the director of communications will
take charge of public relations for Caja de Madrid and its subsidiary
Altae Banco. The job covers media relations, corporate events and
internal communications for the group’s 10,000 staff in Spain.
Previously held by Ramos for five years, the communications post was
vacated following the arrival of Miguel Blesa as the bank’s president in
September (PR Week, 4 October).
A personal friend of Spain’s president Jose Maria Aznar, Blesa has
already replaced several top executives who were personally and
politically linked with the bank’s former president Jaime Terceiro.
Two other candidates were shortlisted for the communications job: Javier
Fernandez del Moral, head of Madrid’s journalism university; and Agustin
Valladolid, editor of news magazine Interview.
Astorqui, whose role as country manager will disappear under Burson-
Marsteller’s new practice structure, has been chief executive since May
1995.
He replaced Jose Antonio Llorente who quit to set up his own consultancy
with former B-M account director Olga Cuenca.
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