Female talent in ICT

Spanish executives

Many Spanish executives have held various positions of responsibility in different companies in the sector in recent years. In fact, the tech sector in Spain is proud to be one of the sectors with higher diversity and opportunities.

Microsoft, in fact, is one of the companies in which female talent is more visible. Rosa García was its CEO in Spain from 2002 to 2008, when she became the vice president of Microsoft Western Europe. (She would later join Siemens as chairperson and consultant for Spain in 2011).

García's promotion within Microsoft brought María Garaña (currently vice president of Adobe for EMEA) to the head of the Iberian delegation. This position was also held by Pilar López Álvarez from 2015 to 2021. She is now the vice president of sales, marketing and operations for Western Europe.

At Google, Fuencisla Clemares has been at the helm of the Spanish branch since November 2016, and she had five years of experience within the corporation before taking on the role. In addition, the Spaniard Sofía Benjumea is head of Google for Startups in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Taking a look at Meta, Irene Cano has been the head of the company in Spain since 2012, reaching this position after leading sales at what was then Facebook.

Beyond software

Women are present in the senior management of technology companies in Spain, far beyond the fields of consumer or software products. There are also examples of women taking on leading roles in hardware.

This is the case, for example, of IBM, which has also had several women at the head of the Spanish subsidiary. One of the first was Amparo Moraleda, who led the company from 2005 to 2008. In 2012, Marta Martínez took on the role, remaining in the position until 2020, when the company named her IBM's CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She was the first woman to hold that position.

Helena Herrero was the chairperson and CEO of HP in Spain until recently. She held the position for a few months until the company split into two (HP and HPE). She was then appointed as Chairperson for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Inés Bermejo took over her role here in Spain.

Meanwhile, the Japanese company Fujitsu employs María Ángeles Delgado as the leader of its Spanish subsidiary. She has been in the role since 2011, having held various positions in the region.

Another Japanese company, Xerox chose Mariola Martínez to be the leader in Spain, a position she has held since 2021. She also holds the role of Vice President of Software and Services for the Channel in EMEA.

Further examples

These women are not the only female ICT leaders in this country, as we can see from these other senior management positions.

María José Talavera has been at the helm of VMware since 2012 as CEO, while Pilar Torres is the main executive of Atos for Spain and Portugal.

In the meantime, Red Hat has entrusted Julia Bernal to lead the company in Spain since 2017. She entered this role barely a year after arriving at the company.

Other benchmarks

In addition to all the names listed above, there are many others who, having previously occupied senior management roles in tech or due to the trajectory of their careers, can also be considered key references in the sector.

An example is Isabel Aguilera. She was the CEO of Spain and Portugal at Google from 2006 to 2008, having previously been CEO at Dell.

Meanwhile, Nuria Oliver is a renowned researcher, especially when it comes to Artificial Intelligence and its application in achieving a more humanitarian technological development.

While the technology sector needs to continue to fight for greater female participation, there are many names leading in the industry who can and do inspire little girls and young women.