Indra aims high in defence and aerospace with the good relationship between its two bosses
The complicity and good human and professional relationship between the two bosses of the Spanish technology multinational have already been grasped by the corporation's directors and this was made clear in the recent presentation of Indra's good economic and operational results for the 2024 financial year, in which they clearly called the shots.
The corporation's headquarters are located in the bullfighting town of Alcobendas, 18 kilometres from the centre of Madrid, and it is here that the two directors of the business group, Ángel Escribano, 53, and Jose Vicente de los Mozos, 62, have had their first big heads-up, in which they have both avoided mentioning that the company wants to be the ‘national champion’ in the national defence industry, although that is what they aspire to.
Ángel Escribano, for whom ‘the new era of Indra has just begun’, is a right-handed man with more than 30 years of experience in the small and not-so-small arenas of the defence sector. The fact that for the last three months the now em&c group has been the largest private shareholder in Indra - with 14.3 per cent of the shareholding - has catapulted it to the presidency of the Alcobendas-based company, and it has just taken up the important institutional role that it now has to play.
Reaching ten billion euros
Jose Vicente de los Mozos is a veteran of the automotive industry who is very familiar with his high operational responsibilities. Shortly after taking up the post of CEO of Indra almost two years ago, he became familiar with the company's capabilities, shortcomings and limitations.
As a professional with in-depth knowledge of the national and international automotive sector, De los Mozos realised, for example, that Indra lacked its own factories with production lines and assembly lines. Such shortcomings contrasted with the divine mandate to make Indra ‘the Spanish multinational of reference in the fields of defence, aerospace and advanced digital technologies’.
To get out of the inherited situation, De los Mozos realised that it was essential and urgent to define a strategic plan. He put together a team, got down to work, called it ‘Leading the Future’, unveiled it in March 2024 and began to implement it. The immediate result is that last year's financial year ended with revenues of 4.843 billion euros, a 12% increase over the previous year. But the aim is to become ‘a ten-billion-euro company’ by the end of the decade.
Escribano and De los Mozos have realised the potential of each other's knowledge and the plan is in full swing. They are favoured by the strong tailwind that is blowing, which is accelerating the pace of action due to the international geostrategic situation in Europe, the high global demand for defence systems and equipment and the added uncertainties brought about by Donald Trump's arrival in the White House and his surprising and worrying decisions.
The sword of Damocles of the 8x8 deliveries
In his role as CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos is now supported by the experience, knowledge and relationships provided by Ángel Escribano, who aspires for Indra, as leader of the TESS consortium, to have ‘its own capacity to manufacture large military vehicles, such as the Wheeled Combat Vehicle (VCR 8x8) and the Tracked Support Vehicle (VAC)’.
Escribano and De los Mozos are aware that, through the current director of their defence division, Borja Ochoa, they assume full responsibility for meeting the delivery deadlines for the committed 8x8 lots. They assure that they are doing so, as in the case of defence electronics, where they intend to continue along the path already begun of integrating radars, sensors, electronic warfare equipment and command and control systems with the increasing use of artificial intelligence.
In the cyber arena, Indra aspires to be the national leader in cybersecurity and cyberdefence. In the naval arena, it seeks to consolidate its position as a systems integrator, for which it knows it needs to form alliances with the major platform builders in the national industry, that is, Navantia. In the air domain, the big bet is to reinforce the role of national coordinator of the future Franco-German-Spanish NGWS/FCAS fighter and its leadership in the pillars of electronic warfare and combat cloud. The two bosses also have their eyes set on participating in the new Eurofighter programmes and, of course, on expanding their drone offering with loitering aircraft equipped with lethal ammunition.
The new management team has placed special emphasis on positioning itself in the growing and strategic space sector and separating the civil from the military side. It has revived, renamed and strengthened Indra Space which, under the direction of Fernando García Martínez-Peñalver, has already added Deimos Space and is on its way to adding the commercial satellite operator Hispasat, which has the parallel of the government services operator Hisdesat. And the shopping list will continue to grow.
In short, the Escribano-De los Mozos duo is fully committed to the changes they are implementing, which involve a commitment to R&D&I and to investing in new technological capabilities. The aim is to transform what until a few years ago was a technology multinational focused on the civil sector into a ‘company producing products and systems for defence, space and multi-domain applications’, emphasises Ángel Escribano.