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rifols captures talent to accompany its unstoppable international growth process. The company based in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona) will incorporate James Costos into its board of directors as an independent director, replacing Luis Izasi, who was president and CEO of Morgan Stanley in Spain until last February.
Born in 1963, Costos is an American diplomat who was the United States ambassador to Spain between 2013 and 2017, after being appointed by President Barack Obama. The United States is Grifols' most strategic market and the country where it focuses the bulk of its investments and acquisitions.
Before his time as ambassador, James Costos had been a senior executive for companies linked to the entertainment and fashion sector, such as HBO and Tod's.
Although it has been three years since he left the American embassy in Madrid, Costos, who now resides in California, has not lost his ties with Spain. In fact, in April he was appointed president of Secuoya Studios, the film and television subsidiary of the Madrid-based audiovisual production group Secuoya. His mission is to open the group's new headquarters in Los Angeles (USA) to strengthen international development and boost American productions in Spain. Secuoya, in fact, has already been chosen by Netflix to establish its first production center in Europe.
The appointment of Costos as an independent director of the Catalan pharmaceutical group must be ratified during the general shareholders' meeting that Grifols has called for next October 9. This is the ordinary general meeting that was postponed as a consequence of the pandemic and in which the annual accounts for the 2019 fiscal year must be approved.