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Subscribe- Second year of award acknowledging best corporate governance practices by Spanish listed companies
- Panel chose Amadeus based on percentage of independent directors, as well as on directors’ technical qualifications and professional experience
- Award honors memory of late Manuel Olivencia, chair of commission that drafted first Spanish Code of Corporate Governance
- Manuel Pizarro, chair of Royal Academy of Case Law and Legislation, headed independent panel
The Cuatrecasas Foundation has decided to award the Manuel Olivencia Award for Good Corporate Governance, which acknowledges the best corporate governance practices by Spanish listed companies, to Amadeus IT Group, S.A. The award ceremony will be held on October 24 at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace (Palacio de la Bolsa de Madrid).
To grant the award, the panel analyzed factors, such as following up on what are considered best practices in relation to the structure and make up of the board of directors: the percentage of independent directors (77%); the system used to re-elect directors annually, after their initial appointment for three years; the transparency and professional nature of the selection policy; the technical qualifications and professional experience of directors; and the promotion of diversity on the board. The panel also highlighted Amadeus’s transparency regarding remuneration and its engagement practices with investors.
The award granted by the Cuatrecasas Foundation honors the memory of the late Manuel Olivencia, a professor of commercial law at the University of Seville, vice chair of Cuatrecasas and chair of the committee that drafted the first Spanish Code of Corporate Governance in 1998, known as the Olivencia Code.
Juan Aguayo, partner at Cuatrecasas and the award’s director, highlighted that “transparency, ethics, diversity, protection of the social interest for the benefit of all shareholders, and sustainable growth are values that we must preserve. The Manuel Olivencia Award acknowledges the best companies, so they are models for others.”
About Amadeus IT Group, S.A.
Travel leads to progress, and Amadeus makes travel happen. Amadeus solutions provide travel options to people planning trips through travel agencies, search engines, tour operators, airlines, airports, hotels, cars and trains.
Amadeus has been developing its technology in collaboration with the travel industry for over 30 years. Thanks to its in-depth knowledge of travel habits and its ability to conceive and develop complex, reliable and essential systems, it designs solutions that meet its clients’ needs. It facilitates contact between over 1.6 billion people each year and local providers in over 190 countries.
Amadeus has 19,000 employees in 70 offices. With a global mentality and local presence, it is present wherever its clients need it. Its aim is to shape the future of travel. It is passionate about finding the best technology for fostering excellent travel options. Amadeus is an IBEX-35 company and trades on the Spanish stock exchanges with the symbol AMS.MC. It is also a member of EuroStoxx 50, and Dow Jones Sustainability Index has acknowledged it in the last eight years.
About the panel of judges
The panel is made up of 15 members, all well-known and highly recognized individuals in Spain’s business and legal spheres, and is chaired by Manuel Pizarro, also chair of the Royal Academy of Case Law and Legislation.
The members of the panel are as follows: Juan Arena, former chair of Bankinter; Francisco Ballester, honorary partner at Cuatrecasas; Jaime Caruana, former governor of Banco de España; Eva Castillo, former chair of Telefónica Europa and former chair of Merrill Lynch Spain and Portugal; Adela Cortina, professor emeritus of ethics and political philosophy at the University of Valencia; Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal, chair of the Cotec Foundation; Ignacio Gil-Casares, former chair and founder of Spencer Stuart in Spain; Luis Isasi, chair and CEO of Morgan Stanley; Consuelo Madrigal, former attorney general; Francisco Pérez-Crespo Payá, partner at Cuatrecasas; Matías Rodríguez Inciarte, chair of Santander Universities; Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, partner at Cuatrecasas and former deputy prime minister of Spain; Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero, dean of the University of Navarra; and Antonio Zoido Martínez, chair of Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (the Spanish company dealing with the organizational aspects of the Spanish stock exchanges and financial markets) and chair of the Madrid stock exchange. Rafael Hidalgo, counsel at Cuatrecasas, is non-member secretary.
About the first edition of the Award
In its first edition, the Manuel Olivencia Award for Good Corporate Governance was awarded to the International Airlines Group (IAG) at a reception held at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace on October 30, 2018.
The panel highlighted the composition of IAG’s board of directors, which has an ample majority of independent directors, including its chair. The panel also valued its investor relation policy, the duration of directors’ term of office (the directors are subject to yearly voting by the shareholders meeting), the selection and training policies for the directors, and the transparency in remuneration matters.
About Manuel Olivencia
Manuel Olivencia was an accomplished lawyer who combined the vocation of teaching from his chair of commercial law with the desire to share knowledge from his professional work in Cuatrecasas, as a partner of this firm. His impressive professional curriculum as a lawyer, university professor, undersecretary of education, commissioner of the Expo 92 in Seville and chair of the commission that drafted the Olivencia Code, is complemented by his personal trajectory and the indelible memories he left his family, friends, students, colleagues and everyone who knew and interacted with him.
He accumulated numerous awards and acknowledgments throughout his life, both in Spain and abroad, as a very cosmopolitan man that studied and lived in different countries. Manuel Olivencia received many awards, including several Grand Spanish Crosses, such as the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic, the Cross of Military Merit, the Cross of Saint Raymond of Penyafort and the Cross of St. George of Catalonia. He was named Favorite Son of Ronda and Adopted Son of Seville, and received the Gold Medal of Ceuta, where he spent part of his childhood.
About the Cuatrecasas Foundation
The Cuatrecasas Foundation, created in 1991, focuses its activity on projects relating to rule of law and access to justice in line with the United Nations Global Compact and the Sustainable Development Goal 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. Peace, justice and strong institutions. The foundation’s flagship activities are the Manuel Olivencia Award for Good Corporate Governance and the creation of the Spanish Pro Bono Foundation, a platform including a wide representation from the legal world to develop pro bono projects in Spain.
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