GCO (Grupo Catalana Occidente) appoints Raquel Cortizo as an independent director

"The merger of Plus Ultra Seguros, Seguros Bilbao and GCO Reaseguros with Seguros Catalana Occidente, which will be renamed Occident, has also been approved."

Yesterday, 25 May, the Board of Directors of GCO (Grupo Catalana Occidente) approved the appointment of Raquel Cortizo as the Group's new independent director, replacing Juan Ignacio Guerrero Gilabert, who resigned from his position after more than a decade in office.

Raquel Cortizo (La Coruña, 1975), Managing Director of Grupo Cortizo, thus becomes the Group's fourth independent director. She holds a degree in Business Management and Administration from the University of Santiago de Compostela, and an Executive MBA from the Intercontinental University-Caixa Nova Business School and the EF Management and Advanced Management Programmes from the IE Business School.   

Juan Ignacio Guerrero Gilabert's resignation, meanwhile, is due to compliance with the regulations applicable to listed companies that set a maximum period of twelve years for independent directors.

Thus, after Guerrero's departure and Cortizo's appointment, the total number of members on the Board of Directors remains at nine, with three of them being women. It is worth recalling that GCO applies practically all of the recommendations of the Code of Good Governance of Listed Companies of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), as well as advanced practices in corporate governance. Following these recommendations, in recent years the Group has been reducing the number of Board members in order to have an adequate size to ensure greater flexibility and agility in decision-making.

The corporate unification process has been formalised

Seguros Catalana Occidente, Plus Ultra Seguros, Seguros Bilbao and GCO Reaseguros also approved yesterday the merger of these companies by absorbing Seguros Catalana Occidente of the remaining companies and the modification of the company name of the former in such a way that it operates under the "Occident" brand, although these agreements are subject to the corresponding administrative authorisations.  In this way, the insurance group takes one more step in the unification of GCO's traditional business. Thus, in the first phase, scheduled for the end of 2023, the insured parties of Seguros Catalana Occidente, Plus Ultra Seguros and Seguros Bilbao will become Seguros Catalana Occidente customers (under their new name, Occident), with a second phase envisaged for 2024, in which the integration of NorteHispana Seguros will take place.