Who is Therese Jamaa, the Lebanese girlfriend of Minister Albares 'plugged in' in Hispasat

Therese Relatives, vice president of Huawei in Spain from early 2022 until May 2023, has generated a major political stir after being appointed as a member of the summit of Hipasat, a telecommunications satellite operator that distributes audiovisual content in Spain ol and Portuguese in Europe and Latin America. Accompanying as a Pedro Dukeformer minister of science, innovation and universities of Spain.

The opposition of the Popular Party and Vox have questioned this appointment. The PP points out “the politicization of public participation organizations and companies by the Government.”

It so happens that Jamaa is also the partner of the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares. Santiago Abascal's party asks: “Is it possible to separate the influence of the Government, in this type of appointment, from the fact that the new counselor has a direct personal relationship with the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation ?”, collects The Confidencial this Tuesday.

The Government of Pedro Sánchez has thus justified the appointment after the issues of said parties: “The appointment of Therese Jamaa as a member of the board of directors of Hispasat has not been at the proposal of the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI), but of another shareholder”, publishes the same newspaper. They refer to Redeia, an international electricity company chaired since 2020 by Beatriz Corredor, who was Minister of Housing during the socialist mandate of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. This company holds 90% of Hispasat. In this way, the Executive distances itself from its signing for Hipasat.

Who is Therese Jamaa?

Of Lebanese origin, his appointment at Hipasat came in December, after the departure of the former president, Jordi Hereu, to be Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Sánchez Government.

Therese Jamaa – who speaks eight languages ​​and is committed to diversity and social causes – left her position at Huawei in May last year. Her departure occurred when the Chinese technology company in the European market was going through its worst moment. A delicate moment that resulted in the company's exclusion from the deployment of the 5G network in dozens of European countries, considering that they constituted a serious risk to national security.

The director combines her senior position at Hispasat with that of a member of the Diversity Advisory Committee of Caixabank and also with that of a member of the Board of Directors of Aigües de Barcelona. The first has held it since December 2022 and the second, since June of last year.

Behind him, other senior management positions: he has worked at SEMA Group-Schlumberger, Vodafone Global or Qualcomm Europe. For five years she was also the general director of GSMA, Mobile World Capital, the association that annually organizes the Mobile World Congress in our country. She has also served as Sales and Business Director for the countries of southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Vodafone.

He fled the war

Born in Beirut to a Lebanese father and Armenian mother, at the age of eight she fled the war with her family. They moved to Paris: “Unfortunately, our father had to stay in Lebanon, since he was a military nurse. Our situation was very complicated, we were fleeing after suffering years of bombings and being forced to be in shelters “We simply wanted to find a better life in France, we were very happy to leave,” he explained in The Spanish in March 2022. However, the arrival in France was “much harder than expected.” His “accent (Moliere style) made his classmates laugh.”

“I still have that feeling of anguish in mind, I remember my mother's concern because they had cut off telecommunications with Lebanon and we did not have any information about my father,” he lamented in the same newspaper. Finally, his father was able to join them in the French capital. “After many years I returned to Beirut with my mother, I even took my children. We returned to my childhood home, to our courtyard and to the shelter that I remembered as giant, but which was nothing more than a hallway and a tiny room in which we took shelter with the neighbors. Each family had to fit on a mattress,” he recalled on his return.