Proprietary
Laura Abasolo García del Baquedano
Nationality: Spanish.
Education: Holds an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Deusto, Deusto Business School. She has also completed executive education programmes at Columbia, INSEAD and IESE.
Experience: She began her professional career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs International in London. She subsequently joined the Telefónica Group, where she held planning and control roles at Terra Networks, taking part in its stock market flotation in Spain and on Nasdaq.
She has 30 years of experience in finance, strategy and operations, more than 26 of which she has spent in the telecommunications sector in Europe and Latin America. In September 1999, she joined Telefónica, S.A., where she developed the remainder of her career until December 2025. Between 2007 and 2016 she was General Director of Planning, Budgeting and Control, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer and serving as a member of the Executive Committee of Telefónica, S.A. from 2014, a period during which she led global planning, budgeting and control, integration and simplification plans during a decade of international expansion processes such as the integration of O2 Europe, the stock market flotation of Telefónica Deutschland and the acquisition of PT’s stake in Vivo Brazil.
From 2017 she held the position of Chief Finance and Control Officer of the Telefónica Group, with additional responsibility as Chief Procurement and Global Supply Chain Officer from 2019, leading capital allocation, balance sheet management, corporate transformation, large-scale restructuring processes and relations with global investors in Europe, the United States and the Middle East in complex, regulated and capital-intensive environments. She was head of M&A and Corporate Development in 2020 to 2021. Between late 2019 and 2025 she headed the Telefónica Hispam business unit, leading to the divestment of various regional operations and improving capital efficiency.
She has been a member of the Board of Directors of VMO2 (2021–2025), Board member (2015–2020) and then Chairwoman from 2018 of the Supervisory Board of Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG, trustee of Fundación Telefónica (2017–2025), and non-executive director of Telefónica Chile (2016–2017). Outside the Telefónica Group, she was a non-executive director and Chairwoman of the Audit and Control Committee of Acerinox, S.A. (2016–2018).
Other current positions: She is a trustee and treasurer of Fundación Lealtad, an NGO that promotes transparency and good practices, and a member of the Board of Deusto Business School Alumni (DBA).
Membership of Board Committees: Capital Allocation Committee.
