Oscar Garcia Maceiras has been operating in the upper echelons of the legal profession for many years. State lawyer for A Coruña between 2001 and 2006, he has been a senior in-house lawyer in the financial sector ever since. An extremely successful six-year spell as general counsel and secretary of the board of directors with Banco Pastor was followed by a year-long tenure as head of legal affairs and deputy board secretary for Banco Popular before moving to government-owned “bad bank” Sareb in late 2012.

Here, he took on a multifaceted role with responsibility for corporate development, compliance and legal where he impressed consistently over the course of three-and-a-half years in a prominent and highly demanding position. His achievements at Sareb were noticed by Santander, who recruited him in May 2016. He joined the company as group general counsel and deputy secretary of the board of directors in September 2016 as one of the most high-profile appointments of that year’s business calendar.

Believing that complementary personalities are at the heart of what makes a great team, Garcia Maceiras looks for individuals rather than brands when deciding which external counsel to recruit, and looks for personal qualities when considering lawyers for the internal makeup of the Santander legal department.