Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, chairman of Cotec

The Cotec Board meeting, held on 23 May at Palacio de La Zarzuela and chaired by His Majesty the King, has elected Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, chairman of the OHL Group, as Cotec’s new chairman.

Juan-Miguel Villar Mir is taking over from José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín, in charge of leading the Cotec project since it was created more than twenty years ago. OHL’s chairman has been a trustee-director for more than ten years now and has achieved a prominent position on the Board due to his permanent defense of the Foundation’s basic principles, which are the ones he himself applies in his business activity.

Cotec’s aim as a foundation is to assist in the country’s development by promoting innovation in Spain’s companies and society. It was created in 1989 by a group of entrepreneurs further to a suggestion from King Juan Carlos, Chairman of Honor, following a visit he made to the U.S., where he became aware of the advantages of using knowledge to generate wealth and wellbeing.

H.M. the King thanked Juan-Miguel Villar Mir for his willingness in taking over Cotec’s helm and trusted that his work for the Foundation will continue making it a reference institution in Spain. He also expressed heartfelt gratitude for José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín’s years of effort and good work.

The challenges undertaken by Cotec’s new chairman include consolidation of the Foundation’s new approach to its activities, directed at encouraging greater participation from Spain’s entire society, particularly by promoting more innovating and enterprising principles amongst citizens, including small and medium-size companies in innovation processes.

Likewise, the events scheduled for the short term include the “VIII European Cotec Meeting”, to be held next October, in Madrid, under the presidency of the heads of State of Italy, Portugal and Spain. Information on preparatory work for this event was provided at the Board meeting.