A Basque maritime and defense specialist… at the Spanish Defense
(BRUSSELS2) The new Defense Minister, Pedro Morenes, who takes office tomorrow (Thursday 22 December) is not a newcomer to the world of defence, security or politics. He is also a man of the company, a lawyer, accustomed to management and restructuring. Finally, he was close to Rajoy, the current Prime Minister, and Josep Pique.
He was in fact a member of the Aznar government without interruption, first as Secretary of State for Defense from May 1996 to May 2000 with Eduardo Serra Rexach. He thus manages the process of professionalization and modernization of the Spanish army. At the change of legislature, and reshuffle of government, he moved to Security as Secretary of State under Mariano Rajoy until July 2002 and finally Secretary of State for Scientific and Technological Policy from August 2002 to April 2004. Since then June 2010, he was director for Spain of MBDA, the European missile company. And he is also president of the private security company Segur Iberica, whose armed guards ensure the safety of Spanish fishermen off the Seychelles. A confusion of genres on which he will have to watch to avoid any accusation of collusion of interest.
Born in 1948, in Getxo in Biscay in the Spanish Basque country, graduated in law from the University of Navarre, he worked from 1984 to 1988 in a law firm, then in 1988 at the Empresa Astilleros Españoles shipyards, and in 1991 , at the Instituto Nacional de Industria. After his political career, he returned to business, first as secretary general of the circle of entrepreneurs, then from January 2009 as chairman of the board of directors of the shipyards of the North and, more recently, of MBDA Spain. The maritime environment, he knows well since he also taught for several years at the Instituto Marítimo Español and also at the European Institute of Maritime Studies. Finally, he is a golf lover, assured me my Spanish colleagues, he presides over the prestigious Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro in Madrid.
(photo credit: US Department of Defense, P. Morenes received with honors at the Pentagon by his counterpart J. Hamre)
Read also: Private guards arrive on board Spanish tuna boats