RESIGNATION OF DURO FELGER | Profile of the new President of Duro Felguera: José Miguel Beyos’s man in Asturias
The departure of Jaime Arguelles from Duro Felguera has prompted a new leadership restructuring at the century-old industrial engineering and capital goods company, with Mexican economist Eduardo Espinosa Bustamante as the new president with executive powers. He will become Duro’s fifth president in seven turbulent years.
Jaime Ishita, also Mexican and the right hand of businessman José Miguel Beyos – president of Grupo Prodi and Mota-Engil México, the companies that took control of Duro – is leaving his post as president of the Asturian company six months after his appointment. Ishita also retained his position as CEO of the Prodi Group and maintained his residence in Mexico. He was the President of Duro from a distance. The day-to-day management of the company was in the hands of CEO Jaime Arguelles of Gijon, and his departure left a personal power vacuum that needed to be filled. The decision that was made is that Ishita moves down a step to become Vice President of Duro, and the man who held that position, Eduardo Espinosa, rises to the position of President.
Espinoza is the only one of José Miguel Bejos’s confidants living in Asturias. He was his envoy to the principality when he began negotiations for entry into Duro Felguera last year. Espinoza was closely involved in the development of a capital raise of more than 91.3 million euros, which allowed Mexican investors to take control of the century-old company founded by Pedro Duro in La Felguera. As a result of this transaction, Prodi is now Duro’s largest shareholder and in turn controls 49% of a second investor, Mota-Engil México, the remaining 51% of which is owned by the Portuguese group Mota-Engil.
After the entry of the Mexicans was completed, in May, by agreement of the board of directors of Duro, Espinoza was appointed vice president of the company. He also took the position of CEO of the corporation and became a member of the executive committee. It was the physical presence of the new Mexican owners in the company. He settled in the area of Somio, Gijon, and brought his family from Mexico.
“Thanks to his deep knowledge of the company and his residence in Gijon, he is the most suitable person for the position of president,” Duro Felguera said of Espinosa yesterday in a statement he sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). announce changes in company management. In addition to being the new president of the board of directors, the Mexican economist becomes president of Duro’s executive committee, which, until a new CEO is elected to replace Argüelles, assumes all executive powers.
Eduardo Espinoza received his degree in economics from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), where he also has a degree in energy engineering, and has studied at Harvard and Columbia University business schools, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his professional career in 2001 as Economic Research Advisor to the Bank of Mexico and in 2002 was appointed Undersecretary of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Veracruz. Two years later, he became deputy director of energy policy in Mexico City, and between 2004 and 2018 he held senior positions in the State Secretariat for Energy, Finance, Treasury and Public Credit, and Foreign Relations of Mexico.
With deep knowledge of public policy and regulated sectors, he made the leap into the private sector in 2020. First as director of finance and commerce at Corporativo Kosmos, one of Mexico’s top 100 food and logistics companies, and then as director of special projects at infrastructure construction company Mota-Engil México. From there he made the leap to Asturias and now takes the helm of the centenarian Duro Felguera.
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