• Iñaki Alzaga takes over as non-executive chairman from Conrado Navarro, who will remain linked to the group as a board member of Nature Investment, the Nortegas parent company.
• Iñaki Alzaga joining the company as the Nortegas chairman coincides with the start of its new growth stage, which, led by its CEO, Javier Contreras, will implement its new strategic plan as part of the new sectoral regulations and facing the great economic recovery challenge following the COVID-19 crisis

The Nortegas Board of Directors, the second natural gas distributor in Spain, today approved the appointment of Iñaki Alzaga as the company’s new non-executive chairman.

Iñaki Alzaga, who graduated in economics and business studies from University of Deusto’s Business School, is currently chairman of the Noticias Group and independent board member of different companies including Euskaltel and Talde Gestión. Alzaga had previously held different top positions in companies of the ilk of Price Waterhouse, Editorial Iparraguirre and Euskaltel, where he was on the steering committee and worked on the launch of new businesses and in the strategy and innovation areas.

The new Chairman of the Nortegas Board of Directors is joining at a particularly relevant moment for the company. Under the leadership of its CEO, Javier Contreras, the company is embarking on a new stage of growth marked by the company’s new Strategic Plan and by a new regulatory environment from 2021 to 2026. It is now also facing the great challenge of the economy recovery after the COVID-19 crisis.

Nortegas will strive to consolidate its market position in the coming years and to become one of the sector’s benchmark in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Nortegas currently supplies natural gas and LPG to over 1 million customers though its 8000-km network in the autonomous regions of Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country.

Renewing leadership

Iñaki Alzaga’s appointment as Nortegas’s non-executive chairman concludes the company’s leadership renewal process which began with last year when Javier Contreras took over as the new CEO. It has also included the recent reorganisation of the management committee and the different areas of the company.

Alzaga is replacing Conrado Navarro, who has had an outstanding career in the energy sector as an executive at Iberdrola and, more recently, as non-executive chairman of Nortegas; Navarro will remain closely linked to Nortegas as a member of the board of Nature Investment, the group’s parent company.

“I am very excited about the new stage I am beginning as chairman of Nortegas. I would like to not only point out the quality of its service, which is essential as we have seen in the COVID-19 crisis, but also the extraordinary ability and merits of its team of over 250 processionals,” Iñaki Alzaga, the new Nortegas chairman, stressed.