Spanish executives are no longer shaping U.S. business only from overseas boardrooms. Some now run American companies outright. Others lead global groups where the United States drives a major share of growth, investment, regulation, supply chain pressure, or consumer demand. In both cases, their decisions land inside real American markets, not just in international strategy slides.
That is the thread behind this list. It is not only about where the company is headquartered or where the CEO sits. It is about Spanish CEOs whose work reaches American energy networks, hospitals, payment systems, vehicle plants, retail stores, construction sites, software platforms, and biotech labs. Some influence what people buy every week. Others shape the infrastructure, medicine, technology, and capital-heavy projects that sit behind the economy.
Spanish CEOs Leading Business Growth In The United States
1. Pedro Azagra
Pedro Azagra, CEO of Iberdrola and former CEO of Avangrid, spent years inside Iberdrola’s U.S. business before taking the group role. Avangrid put him directly in the American energy market, from renewables and power grids to utility regulation and infrastructure projects with long timelines and big capital needs. By the time he became CEO of Iberdrola, the United States was already one of the group’s most important growth markets.
That gives him a strong reason to open the list. Azagra is not here simply because Iberdrola is large or Spanish. He has operated where Spanish energy expertise, international expansion, and American demand for cleaner power all meet. His reputation sits in the wider energy and infrastructure market, not just inside one company.
2. Ramón Laguarta
Ramón Laguarta, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, leads a business Americans run into constantly, often without thinking about it. The company is in snacks, drinks, grocery aisles, convenience stores, restaurants, delivery routes, advertising budgets, and pricing talks with retailers. Laguarta joined PepsiCo in the 1990s and worked across several markets before reaching the top job.
PepsiCo is everywhere, but running it is not just a shelf-space job. Laguarta has to deal with shoppers who still buy the big brands, but now argue more about price, sugar, health, convenience, and whether a product feels worth it. In the U.S., even small changes in how people snack or shop can move the numbers, and that is the kind of day-to-day pressure his role sits inside.
3. Joaquín Duato
Joaquín Duato, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, runs a company that is hard to separate from American healthcare. He was at J&J for more than 30 years before becoming CEO. Not in one narrow lane, either. His career moved through different countries, divisions, and operating roles, which matters in a business that spans drugs, medtech, research, hospital relationships, and regulation.
That background matters in a business this large. Johnson & Johnson is dealing with drug pipelines, medical technology, pricing pressure, lawsuits, and competition from other healthcare groups at the same time. Duato’s job is to keep those pieces moving without letting the company drift after years of structural change. Among Spanish executives, few sit this close to the daily pressures of American healthcare.
4. Enrique Lores
Enrique Lores, president and CEO of PayPal, brings a Spanish executive background into a very different U.S. arena: digital payments. After years leading HP, he moved from hardware, enterprise operations, and supply chains into consumer finance, merchant tools, checkout behavior, and fintech competition. PayPal is still a household name, but the market around it has become much tougher.
The challenge is practical. PayPal competes with banks, card networks, Apple Pay, Stripe, Block, wallets, and newer AI-driven commerce tools. Lores brings operational discipline from HP, but PayPal asks for another skill set too: faster product decisions, sharper positioning, stronger merchant trust, and clearer value for consumers. His next chapter will play out inside one of America’s most crowded technology markets.
5. José Muñoz
José Muñoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, came to the top job with real North American experience behind him. Before becoming global CEO, he ran Hyundai and Genesis Motor North America and also served as global COO. That put him close to the parts of the U.S. car business that matter day to day: dealers, buyers, incentives, production choices, brand positioning, and product strategy.
Hyundai’s U.S. business sits at the heart of several industry shifts at once. EV investment, battery supply, tariffs, Genesis growth, manufacturing commitments, and dealer economics all matter. Muñoz has already worked close to those pressure points, so his global leadership is not detached from the United States. A large part of the job is still about getting America right.
6. Chano Fernández
Chano Fernández, co-CEO of Klaviyo, sits in the software side of the list. At the Boston-based company, he works on go-to-market, operations, and the business functions behind Klaviyo’s customer data, messaging, retention, and marketing tools. Before that, he held senior roles at Workday and Eightfold AI, two companies built around cloud software, enterprise customers, and AI-driven business systems.
This is not as visible as PepsiCo or Johnson & Johnson, but it sits close to how modern commerce runs. Brands need cleaner customer data, better segmentation, better retention, and more disciplined communication with buyers. Fernández’s work is about turning software into revenue process. For U.S. companies that depend on repeat customers, that can matter as much as a store, a call center, or a sales team.
7. Belén Garijo
Belén Garijo, CEO of Sanofi, brings the pharma side into the list. She is a Spanish doctor turned healthcare executive, now leading a global company with heavy exposure to the U.S. market. Her medical background gives her more than a management lens, which matters in a business where science, regulation, pricing, market access, and investor pressure all push against each other.
The United States is too important for Sanofi to treat as just another market. Vaccines, immunology, specialty medicines, drug pipelines, market access, and reimbursement all carry heavy U.S. pressure. Garijo is not leading an American company, but American healthcare conditions will shape many of the decisions in front of her. That is enough to make her part of the U.S. business story.
8. Óscar García Maceiras
Óscar García Maceiras, CEO of Inditex, leads the Spanish retail group behind Zara. His work is tied to product speed, store operations, logistics, technology, and disciplined spending. Those are not abstract retail ideas in the U.S. market. They decide whether Zara can keep its edge with American shoppers who have endless fashion options and little patience for weak inventory.
The U.S. is a difficult market for any global fashion company. Store placement, online shopping, pricing, delivery speed, trend timing, and brand perception all have to line up. García Maceiras belongs on the list because Inditex’s model gets tested hard in America. If Zara can keep momentum there, it says a lot about the company’s ability to compete beyond Europe.
9. Juan Santamaría
Juan Santamaría, CEO of ACS Group, runs a Spanish infrastructure business with a large North American footprint. In the U.S., ACS is not just a name on a corporate map. Its work comes through companies like Turner and FlatironDragados, which are tied to buildings, transport projects, data centers, and heavy civil construction. That puts Santamaría close to the kind of projects cities, public agencies, and large companies depend on to grow.
His U.S. connection is physical: roads, data centers, transit projects, buildings, bridges, and large construction programs. The integration of Flatiron and Dragados North America strengthened ACS’s platform for complex work across the United States and Canada. Santamaría’s place on the list comes from that real footprint. His decisions are tied to the infrastructure American business depends on before anything else can happen.
10. Bernat Olle
Bernat Olle is the founder and CEO of Vedanta Biosciences, a Massachusetts company working on microbiome-based therapies. His place on this list is different from the corporate names above him. Instead of running a global consumer or industrial group, he is building in Cambridge biotech, where research, funding, clinical trials, manufacturing, and regulation all decide whether the science can become a real company.
That setting matters. Cambridge gives Vedanta access to universities, hospitals, labs, pharma partners, investors, and specialized talent within a few miles. The company’s work takes microbiome research and pushes it toward drug development, trials, manufacturing, and regulatory review. Olle’s profile is smaller than the corporate CEOs above him, but it still belongs here: it shows Spanish leadership inside the research-heavy side of American business.
Why These Leaders Matter
The Spanish CEOs shaping business success in the United States do not all fit the same profile. Some lead U.S.-headquartered companies with direct influence over American customers, workers, and investors. Others run global groups where America is too large, competitive, or strategically important to be treated as a secondary market. That mix is exactly what makes the list stronger.
Together, they put Spanish leadership into parts of American business people deal with every day: power grids, hospitals, payments, stores, construction sites, auto plants, software, and biotech labs. Their nationality explains why they belong on the same list. Their real value comes from something else: knowing how to work across markets, regulation, capital, and customer pressure without losing the thread.
If you’re a Spanish CEO in the US and want to be featured on this list, email us or submit a form in the Top Choices section. After a thorough assessment, we’ll decide whether it’s a valuable addition.
