Born 5 May 1945, Cesar Alierta holds a degree in law from the University of Zaragoza and an MBA at Columbia University (New York).
He has been Chairman of Telefónica since July 2000, and is member of the Boards of Directors of China Unicom and Telecom Italia.
Since September, 2010, he has been an independent board member of the Board of Directors of International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG).
Between 1970 and 1985, he was General Manager of the Capital Markets division at Banco Urquijo in Madrid. Subsequently, he was the Chairman and founder of Beta Capital.
In 1996 he became Chairman of Tabacalera.
On June 2010, César Alierta received in New York the Americas Society Gold Medal. Five years earlier, also in New York, Alierta received "The Global Spanish Entrepreneur" from the Spanish/US Chamber of Commerce. This prize was awarded in recognition of the Telefónica Group's success in joining the NY Dow Jones Global Titans 50 index. Telefónica is the first Spanish company and one of the few European ones to belong to this index which consists of the 50 biggest companies in the world.
