Susana Alejandro, current Director of Strategy and Corporate Development, will succeed Ramón Alejandro as Chairman of the Saica Group as of 1 July 2024. The announcement provides a long handover period to ensure a smooth succession.
Like Ramón, Susana Alejandro (born in Zaragoza, 1970) belongs to the third generation of the company's founding families, who set up the business 80 years ago. She joined the company in 1996, after graduating in Business Administration by the University of Zaragoza and having received further training in taxation, strategic business planning and sales. She also gained experience in a French subsidiary of the Mars Group, before starting in the financial department of Saica in Madrid and in France. After that, she moved on to the Corrugated Board division, where in 2003 she took over the general management of Iberia Operations and in 2010, the general management of the division. Since 2013, she has held the position of Director of Strategy and Corporate Development across the Saica Group.
Ramón Alejandro (born in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, 1961) has been linked to the group since 1988, when, after completing his studies at the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza and a Master's degree at the University of Deusto, he worked and became manager at one of the cardboard factories that Saica had acquired in Mexico.
Later, in 1993, he led the company's expansion in Europe as manager of another corrugated board factory in Lisbon. Back in Spain, in 1996 he became general manager of Iberia operations at “Saica Embalaje” - today Saica Pack - and in 2001 he was appointed general manager of the corrugated board division of the Saica Group, with plants in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 2007, he was appointed Executive Vice President of the company and on 1 July 2010 he took over as Chairman of the Saica Group.
In recent years and during the time that both have held their current positions, Saica has focused heavily on greater customer orientation, efficiency, decarbonisation, continuous boosting of the circular economy, attracting and developing talent, improving the health and safety of its employees, and maintaining the company's sustainable growth, with Saica's entry into the United States and its expansion into Eastern Europe.
"I am very proud to hand over the baton to the first woman to chair this company, a woman with solid values, great international experience, excellent training and a brilliant career at Saica", said Ramón Alejandro, who also expressed his "certainty that, with Susana leading the company, Saica will continue to grow in a sustainable way, satisfying the expectations of our stakeholders and always bearing in mind the company's mission and values."
As for Susana, she declared herself "very excited about the challenge of chairing a group like Saica, leading the excellent team we have to successfully tackle the important challenges ahead of us in a world that is uncertain, complex and volatile but at the same time, full of opportunities."