The SAES Board of Directors of SAES has agreed to appoint Sofía Honrubia Checa, commercial and business development vice-president in Navantia, as the new president of SAES. They have also designated to Cristina Abad Salinas as the new CEO, replacing the positions filled by Alfredo Gordo Álvarez. Vicente Santamaría Calvario was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors.
Sofía Honrubia Checa is a naval engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She was appointed the director of SAES in June 2018 and is currently a commercial and business development manager of Navantia, S.A., S.M.E., a company in which she has held different responsibilities for more than 20 years, both in national and international projects. From this position, the new president of SAES has promoted the collaboration between Navantia and SAES.
Cristina Abad Salinas is an engineer in automation and industrial electronics from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena. The new SAES director has 18 years of experience in the naval sector and, during her career, she has held various positions in relation to large programmes such as the Spanish submarine S-80. Until her appointment at SAES, she has held the position of deputy director of Technology Management, Cybersecurity and 4.0 at Navantia Sistemas with the responsibility of promoting technological transformation in the division of Navantia, encompassing research, technological development and innovation activities (R + D + I) and cybersecurity.
At the beginning of her career, Cristina Abad worked as a systems engineer at SAES for the Norwegian F-310 frigate programme and since her previous duties at Navantia Sistemas, she has collaborated closely with the company she now directs.
SAES, as a state mercantile company, is part of the state business public sector. It is attached to the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations through the commercial, also public, SAES CAPITAL, S.A., S.M.E. through Navantia, all of them belonging to and included in the State Company of Industrial Participations (SEPI) Group. From the shareholding point of view, SAES CAPITAL owns 51% of the shares and the rest belong to the French company THALES DMS FRANCE SAS.
SAES specialises in underwater acoustics and electronics and has been the leading company in Spain for sonar technology and anti-submarine warfare for more than 30 years. Some of its products are also destined for the civil market in the areas of critical infrastructure, ship safety and underwater measurement with environmental applications.
The company, which has participated in the large Spanish naval programmes for submarines, mine-hunters, frigates and other platforms, also has a marked international character, exporting to different countries such as France, the US, Sweden, Chile, Colombia and Kazakhstan.
SAES has recently obtained important contracts with Navantia and Thales in relation to the F-110 programme, by which it contributes the acoustic processing of sonobuoys to the frigate and will undertake the manufacture, installation and testing of the Thales BMAS cylindrical sonar, as well as its integration in the sonar suite, among other jobs. In addition, the company will participate in supporting the lifecycle of the S-80 and F-110 submarines. With these contracts, the company consolidates its position in the defence sector as a leading company in ASW technology.