José Ignacio Morales Plaza

Mr. Morales is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vía Célere, the largest home builder in Spain with 2,3 Bn EUR of assets under management. He joined Vía Célere in November 2018 as CFO of the Group and in June 2019 was promoted to CEO. Previously, he was heading the Strategy & Business Development department of Sener Group, the largest privately-owned engineering & construction company in Spain. Before that, Mr Morales was the Corporate CFO of Sener Group for a decade. He has served as a Board Member in different companies: Masaveu Group (the largest industrial investor in Spain); Masaveu Inmobiliaria (REIT with assets above 2 Bn EUR worldwide), ITP (aerospace sector), Sener Group (engineering), Torresol Energy (renewable energy joint venture with the sovereign fund Mubadala) and Vía Célere (owned by a few private equity firms).

Before that, Mr. Morales has worked in investment banking (BBVA), the pharmaceutical industry (Hoffmann La Roche) and in consulting (PwC). He has more than twenty years of experience in diverse fields of management, strategy, business development, corporate finance and large real economy investments. Morales has held the previous positions in Spain, Switzerland and USA.

He also sits on several Advisory Boards related to activities in the financial sector (Instituto Español de Analistas Financieros, Certificado de Experto en Valoración de Empresas, etc.). He is a professor of different financial subjects in a few of the most reputed business schools in Europe.

Corporate Experience

• Chief Executive Officer. Via Célere. (Madrid, Spain). June 2019 to Present.
• Corporate Chief Financial Officer. Via Célere. (Madrid, Spain). November 2018 to June 2019.
• Head of Strategy & Business Development (and previously Corporate CFO). Sener Grupo de Ingeniería (SGI). (Madrid, Spain). December 2005 to July 2018.
• Senior Financial Analyst. BBVA Bolsa (Madrid, Spain). October 2000 to December 2005
• International Senior Auditor. F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., Nutley, (New Jersey, USA) & Basel (Switzerland). Corporate Audit Department. April 1999 to October 2000
• Senior Supervisor. PricewaterhouseCoopers. Madrid (Spain). April 1995 to April 1999

Academic Experience

• Adjunct Professor in Instituto de Empresa Business School. Master in Finance & Master in Advanced Finance. Year 2009 to Present.
• Fundación de Estudios Financieros. Member of the Executive Committee. Subjects: valuation, corporate finance, project finance, portfolio management, recourse & non-recourse financing. Year 2002 to Present.
• Club Español de la Energía. Director of the “Renewable Energy Course” and Associated Profesor in Master of Finance for the Energy Sector. Year 2006 to Present.
• CUNEF. Associated Professor in the Master in Finance. Year 2009 to Present.

Academic Background

• Certificate in Strategy & Scenario Planning. University of Oxford. Said School of Business. A.T. Kearny Oxford Scenarios Programme. 2015.
• Ph.D. in Economy. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Business Administration. Thesis: Renewable Energy (valuation, financing & regulation). Grade: Summa cum laude by unanimous decision. 2011.
• Master in Business Administration. (EMBA). IESE Business School. Ranked #1 in Dean List. 2004.
• Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Universidad Autónoma of Madrid (Spain). Grade average A+ with honors. Member of the special project “Cooperación Educativa”. 1997.