New Telefonica chairman begins to exec remoulds with new COO

News Fuelled by a newly refreshed Board of Directors, Telefonica’s incoming chairman Marc Murtra is wasting no time in reshaping the company from the top down. Telefonica has this week announced a major executive reshuffle, marking the start of a new strategic direction with chairman Marc Murtra at the helm. The first and most significant change is the promotion of Telefonica Spain CEO Emilio Gayo to the role of Group COO and executive director. In this role, he will oversee the Group’s operations in in Spain, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as the B2B, Telefónica Tech, Telefónica Infra and gCTIO business units. Gayo, who has worked at Telefonica in various roles for the past two decades, replaces outgoing COO Ángel Vilá. Vilá will remain on the board of Virgin Media O2 in the UK and is being proposed for a board position at Telefonica Germany. In addition to the new COO, Murtra is also leaning on ex-colleagues from his previous employer, defence firm Indra, to fill strategic positions. Borja Ochoa, previously general director of defence and security at Indra, will replace Gayo at the head of Telefonica Spain, while the CEO of Telefonica Tech, José Cerdán, will also be replaced by an Indra alumnus, Sofía Collado. Finally, there will also be a change of chief digital officer, with Sebas Muriel replacing Chema Alonso, who has held the role for the past 13 years. The scale and speed of this reshuffle is worth noting. New chairman Murtra took over the position from José María Álvarez-Pallete after the latter’s surprise ousting in January . Murtra’s appointment was largely seen as relating to the Spanish government’s increasing sensitivity over Telefonica’s future, with the state having grown its stake in the business to counterbalance foreign investment from the likes of the UAE’s e&. Since taking over the role six weeks ago, Spanish media has reported that Murtra has been dissatisfied with Vilá , with his replacement seen as the first step in a major restructure that will likely include changes to several more leadership positions. Keep up to date with the latest telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter Also in the news: EY launches suite of AI agents for telcos Discussing the fate of the BEAD Program with Dr. Nathan Smith Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Becomes First Mobile Operator in Southeast Asia to Deploy AI-RAN with Nokia and NVIDIA