Cristina Álvarez becomes chair of El Corte Inglés, plans to invest €650 million this financial year

Cristina Álvarez, who, as of this Thursday, assumes the chair of El Corte Inglés and the Ramón Areces Foundation, has underlined her intention to contribute to the development of the group’s businesses and to its investment programme, which in the 2026-2027 financial year will total €650 million.

In a statement, Álvarez explained that this investment will focus on continuing store refurbishments, strengthening the group’s technology and logistics capabilities, and expanding its businesses.

Cristina Álvarez, who replaces her sister Marta, takes the helm of the company and the foundation after both appointments were unanimously approved by all members of the El Corte Inglés board of directors and the board of trustees of the Ramón Areces Foundation.

Cristina Álvarez continues to chair the Appointments and Remuneration Committee. In addition, from Thursday she will also chair the Monitoring Committee and will therefore oversee the strategic plan approved by the board of directors and its implementation by managing directors Santiago Bau and Rafael Díaz Yeregui.

The chairwoman has expressed her “sincere commitment and dedication” to the group, to which she has devoted her professional life for more than 30 years, and has emphasised her “pride in being part of El Corte Inglés.”

On November 26, the company announced the handover, which took place within an “orderly, stable framework that ensures continuity,” according to the group at the time.

In this way, Marta Álvarez steps aside in favour of her sister as chair after six years in the role, a “personal and voluntary decision,” although she will remain a member of the board of directors and of the Monitoring Committee, focusing on the strategic direction of own-brand lines in fashion and home.

Cristina Álvarez, who joined the company in 1992, expressed her thanks, when the handover was announced, for the “magnificent work” carried out by her sister Marta over these years and said she would perform her duties with “humility, always safeguarding the interests of the shareholders, employees and customers of this great company.”

Marta Álvarez’s decision to hand over the chair to her sister came almost a month after the board of directors approved, with immediate effect, the reshuffle of the company’s top management, following the departure of its chief executive officer, Gastón Bottazzini, who took up the post just over a year ago.