Banco Santander has appointed three leading technologists to support its strategy and digital transformation.
R. Martin Chávez has been appointed as a new independent director. Mr. Chávez will replace Esther Giménez-Salinas who will be stepping down having served on the board for eight years.
Mr. Chávez, who has worked for 20 years at Goldman Sachs, began his career as a software engineer and founded a number of technology companies in Silicon Valley and New York. He will also join the remuneration committee; risk supervision, regulation and compliance committee; and innovation and technology committee.
Sebastian Gunningham will be appointed chairman of Santander Consumer Finance and vice chairman of Openbank, subject to regulatory approval, and become a senior advisor to the Santander group chairman on technology. He worked at Amazon as senior vice president, is responsible for the Amazon Marketplace and multiple other technology groups, including overseeing Amazon’s global payments services. During his career, he has also worked at Apple, First Data, Oracle, and WeWork. Mr. Gunningham will succeed Antonio Escámez as chairman of Santander Consumer Finance and vice chairman of Openbank. Mr. Escámez will remain a member of both boards.
Francisco D’Souza, co-founder of Cognizant and a member of Santander’s International Advisory Board since 2016 will become the group strategic advisor for the development of Santander Global Platform (SGP), assisting the board in setting up and implementing the strategy and business models of all the existing and new ventures being developed within SGP.
Ana Botín, Banco Santander’s group executive chairman, said: “Marty, Sebastian, and Frank bring extensive experience and will add significant value to the group as we develop and execute our digital transformation. They have each had outstanding careers and I look forward to working together as we progress in developing our strategy to be the best open financial services platform. On behalf of the board, I would also like to thank Esther Giménez-Salinas and Antonio Escámez for the significant contributions they have made to the group. They have both helped develop and grow our business over the last years and their insight and experience have been invaluable.”
