El Corte Inglés has appointed Santiago Bau as its new chief executive officer following the departure of Gastón Bottazzini, who led the Spanish department store group for barely 13 months. Bau, who held the position of corporate general manager since March 2022, was elevated to the top role effective immediately after a board decision announced on October 29, 2025. The restructuring marks the latest in a series of executive reshuffles at the family-controlled retailer amid ongoing strategic disagreements.
Bottazzini's departure followed internal disagreements with the group's principal shareholder families, according to reporting by El Confidencial and confirmed by the company in a statement describing the exit as by mutual agreement. The 54-year-old Argentine executive, who initially joined El Corte Inglés as Chairwoman Marta Álvarez's personal adviser in late 2023 before his CEO appointment in July 2024, had been entrusted with steering the 2025-2030 strategic plan involving a EUR 3.3 billion investment to modernise stores and expand logistics capabilities. His elevation had eliminated the company's delegated management committee, concentrating power in the CEO role. Alongside Bau's promotion, the company also elevated Rafael Díaz Yeregui to secretary general at general manager level. Both executives now report to a board monitoring committee chaired by Álvarez and including her sister Cristina and José Ramón de Hoces.
Bau, 43, brings extensive investment banking experience to the role. He graduated in law and business administration from Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, studied political science at UNED, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He led Goldman Sachs' Spanish real estate operations from January 2018 before joining El Corte Inglés in spring 2022 as corporate general manager overseeing non-retail business divisions and financial matters. According to Spanish business publications, Bau advised El Corte Inglés on corporate transactions during his Goldman tenure, positioning him as an insider to the company's operations before his formal appointment.
El Corte Inglés operates as Spain's largest private employer, tracing its origins to 1935 when founder Ramón Areces acquired a tailor shop. The company operates department stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets across Spain and Portugal, alongside travel, insurance and leisure businesses. The Álvarez family controls the retailer through direct stakes and the Fundación Ramón Areces, which holds 37 percent of shares. The company generated EUR 16.7 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending February 2025, marking a 2 percent increase year-on-year despite chronic executive instability. Family conflicts have roiled leadership for years, including a costly 2018 battle that resulted in an EUR 8.5 million severance to oust family member Dimas Gimeno. Marta Álvarez returned the presidency to family control in July 2019 after a brief experiment with non-family chairs.
Bau's appointment suggests the Álvarez family has opted for a familiar external figure with technical expertise and investment banking credentials rather than pursue the ambitious transformation that Bottazzini had begun orchestrating. The reshuffle may signal the family's intention to reassert control over strategic decisions and pace of change at the company, possibly preferring incremental modernisation over the aggressive capital deployment Bottazzini was overseeing. That Bau must immediately begin executing a EUR 3.3 billion reinvestment plan under board supervision indicates potential constraints on executive autonomy, a pattern reflecting broader family governance tensions that have plagued the company's executive succession for the better part of a decade.
