CIO Alvaro De Nicolas

Spain is heralded as the economic success story of 2024. The Iberian nation is bucking the sluggish economic trends of its European neighbors, in part because of its rapidly growing technology economy. Having detailed Spain’s success in creating digital hub services, I wanted to know if we can expect a similar meteoric rise of Spanish digital leaders. One Chief Information Officer well qualified to observe and pontificate on this is Alvaro De Nicolas, who has led technology across Spain and Europe and is today advising the next generation of digital leaders.

De Nicolas has led technology in a number of hotel and tourism firms, but also in media, technology, telecommunications and financial services. All of this in a career that has seen him based in France, Spain, and the UK.

He was at BT from 2011 to 2014 when the once-nationalized telecommunications operator set out to become a multi-media firm capable of competing with the then Rupert Murdoch-owned Sky and Richard Branson-founded Virgin Media. As Chief Technology Officer for BT TV & Sport, De Nicolas was responsible for an £80 million technology budget, 190 staff, and a further 120 contractors. This team and budget had to not only transform BT into a broadcaster but also be the main carrier of TV signal from the 2012 London Olympics, the most significant sporting event to take place in the capital this century, and a massive global success for the country. He says of his part in the games:

It was phenomenal to see a big ship moving so fast. A year after the games, we launched BT Sport, and again, this was an incredible period of delivery as the talent working with us was incredible, and there was no red tape holding us back. People said we were crazy, but we did it and it was an amazing time.

De Nicolas returned to Spain for four years following BT as Group Chief Information and Technology Officer for HotelBeds and led the transition of the Palma headquartered business into a marketplace digital business model. Central to this journey was being the technology leader heading the divestment of HotelBeds from the German travel giant Tui Travel and then the further divestment of the Laterooms and Asiarooms business. Along the way, he and his team had to migrate their Oracle technology stack onto Amazon Web Services (AWS) and move to a microservices model that is essential for a marketplace business model. Workday, SAP and Salesforce platforms were also deployed.

He would return to the UK first with another travel firm before joining Lloyds Banking Group in the pandemic for a two-year stint as a Senior Transformation Director responsible for the new architecture and implementation of a cloud migration. The back and forth between Spain and the UK would continue with a year at WebBeds following Lloyds, he stayed in travel as Chief Digital Strategy Officer at Kent based Holiday Extras before a final return to Spain in 2024 and his work with Madrid headquartered Revamp Advisors.

Spain’s new generation of tech leaders

With an experienced view of digital leadership in his own country and others, does he think Spain’s success at creating digital hubs will lead to it developing a cadre of Chief Information Officers that, like him, can lead banks, travel firms, and telcos in other markets? De Nicolas explains:

Yes, there is a new wave of Generation Z technologists that are used to travel, mastering a number of languages, and they have a hunger to learn different cultures.

The rise of the digital hubs, especially in Barcelona, which hosts Zurich Insurance, Novartis, Pepsico, Nestle, and Munich Re is internationalizing the native tech talent, he comments:

Spain is getting French, Italian, British, and US CIOs coming to Spain for our services, but also to lead technology in Spanish companies, and that is healthy for everyone.

The growth of AI and business process outsourcing (BPO) providers in Spain means there is lots of talent coming through the ranks into leadership. These people are really focused, have great skills and product experience in roles like Solutions Architect, so they are specialists in solving problems, which is what organizations want from a digital leader.

Asked if there are particular personality traits Spaniards bring to digital leadership, De Nicolas explains:

We wear our hearts on our sleeves; it is part of being Spanish. That is not a trait I see so much in French and British leaders.

He is not biased to a fault though:

Sometimes the passion is too strong.

Spain’s strong sense of community, which is evident in the digital hubs scene, is also reflected in its digital leaders. De Nicolas says there is a distinct, people-centered Hispanic management style rooted in trust, community, and adaptability. He adds:

There is a lot more focus on the people rather than the process, and I believe that gives you great flexibility.

Comparing the qualities of Hispanic leaders to those of Anglo-Saxon origin, De Nicolas says the core values of a Hispanic leader are trust, social responsibility, and stakeholder value, while an Anglo-Saxon peer would have core values of efficiency, competition, and shareholder focus.

This results in a leadership style that is charismatic, relational, and perhaps paternalistic among Hispanic digital leaders, compared to data-driven and analytical. Interestingly, given the flat structure of the digital hubs I have witnessed, De Nicolas says Hispanic management structures tend to be hierarchical, while their Anglo-Saxon counterparts have embraced the flat structure. On the important topics of change management and innovation, De Nicolas says improvisation is strong among Hispanic leaders, while their peers prefer structure and process.

These qualities, De Nicolas says, are the reason that organizations such as retailer Inditex, which operates the Zara chain, has become a global success story. One area where there is room for improvement in Spanish digital leadership is the use of data, De Nicolas says. He would like to see his peers become more analytical and data-led.

Spain, a leader

International newspaper The Economist described Spain at the end of 2024 as the best-performing rich world economy based on its good Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and the management of inflation, fiscal policy, stock market performance, and low unemployment. Growth and unemployment outperformed the USA in 2024, the paper says, adding that Spain shows that Europe is not in a state of stagnation. This success is, in part, built on technology and technology talent. While other European economies have benefited from becoming the European home of predominantly US tech giants, Spain’s investment in technology talent has enabled the digital hubs that we have charted to flourish and become home-grown tech successes. Home-grown firms that, as De Nicolas points out, are likely to create a plethora of Spanish digital leaders.

The local technology industry is following a path pioneered by Spain’s original success story, tourism. Spain was not content with just being the host of many fine and sunny holidays for northern Europeans; it has become the continent’s leader in hotel chain businesses. The career of De Nicolas reveals this, with leadership stints at major firms headquartered in Palma, Majorca. He says of his digital leadership roles in Spain’s hotel businesses:

It was a fantastic time to be in the industry as a number of large hotel firms in Europe started in Majorca. This means there are a lot of CIOs in a small place.

The Spanish Government’s trade department reports that the nation now has an estimated 38,000 technology companies delivering 22.6 percent of GDP in 2022 with a turnover of €121.8 billion ($131 billion). As the third best-connected European Union (EU) country, it seems inevitable that many more will follow De Nicolas into international digital leadership.

My take

Build it and they will come. Build it and they will become leaders. Spain’s continued rise into an economic digital success story has a pioneer to follow in De Nicolas, and it will be fascinating to watch the armada set sail. The Spanish approach of blending passionate leadership with people-focused management may offer lessons for other European tech scenes struggling with growth and talent retention. What’s most compelling about Spain’s rise is how it leverages cultural strengths rather than simply mimicking Silicon Valley – creating a distinctly Mediterranean approach to tech leadership that could reshape Europe’s digital landscape.

 

 

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