doc_ECI

Mr. Isidoro Álvarez Álvarez
Isidoro Álvarez Álvarez, Chairman of the Board of Directors of El Corte Inglés from 1989 to 2014, was born in the Spanish region of Asturias in 1935. He was married.
He began working at El Corte Inglés at the age of 18, while studying Economics and Business Sciences at the Complutense University in Madrid. In 1957, at the age of
22, he earned his degree with High Honours.
Two years later, he was appointed he was appointed a Member of the Board of Directors in 1959, at the age of 24, and then Managing Director and Chairman in
1966.
After the death of Ramón Areces, the Board of Directors appointed him Chairman of El Corte Inglés on 2 August 1989, a decision later ratified at the Shareholders'
General Meeting on 27 August of the same year.
Isidoro Álvarez is one of Spain's top experts in retail distribution. "My school," he says, "has always been El Corte Inglés and my teacher was Ramón Areces. I believe
that the history of retail trade in this country would not be the same without Mr. Areces, who introduced techniques and procedures that have modernised the retail
business in Spain".
Isidoro Álvarez's career has given him an in-depth knowledge of the different forms of distribution in the most developed countries. In close collaboration with the
entire team of professionals in the Group, he is responsible for the El Corte Inglés expansion plan and its diversification into other lines of business.
Isidoro Álvarez was named "Executive of the Year" in 1989 by Mercado magazine. At the time, he said that "the only secret to El Corte Inglés achieving the leading
position that it enjoys today is teamwork and the desire on the part of its staff to excel, since these people are, after all, a company's most valuable asset. That was
always the philosophy of Mr. Areces, and I have shared it throughout my entire life".
On 2 May 1998, he received the Gold Medal of the Region of Madrid, granted on an individual basis by its Governing Council "for his extraordinary contribution to job
creation and his commitment to productive investment". On 24 March 2001, he was appointed Member of Honour of the Royal Madrid Economic Society of Friends
of the Country , at an event in which he was seconded by economist Juan Velarde Fuertes and historian Gonzalo Anes. In 2002, he was given the Gold Medal of the
Royal Academy of Medicine. That same year he was recognised by the Government of Italy, which bestowed upon him the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Merit
of the Italian Republic.
In October 2002, the magazine Actualidad Económica named him Businessman of the Year.
In 2003, he received the Silver Medal of the Civil Guard and the Honorary Red Cross of the Order of Police Merit.
In December 2004, as chairman of the Ramón Areces Foundation, he received the Gold Medal of the Academy of History (RAH) during a meeting of the board of
academics. The director of the RAH, Gonzalo Anés, said "El Corte Inglés has an ambitious programme including numerous social, cultural and scientific actions, many
of which are carried out through the Ramón Areces Foundation".