Pedro Azagra Blázquez

Overview

Pedro Azagra Blázquez
Born	1968 (age 57–58) Madrid, Spain
Citizenship	Spain
Education	Double degree in Business Administration and Law; MBA
Alma mater	Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE); University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	Iberdrola
Known for	Leading Iberdrola's international expansion; former CEO of Avangrid
Title	Chief Executive Officer of Iberdrola
Term	2025–present
Predecessor	Armando Martínez
Board member of	Yale New Haven Hospital; Edison Electric Institute
Children	4
Awards	CEO of the Year (Runner-Up), CEO Magazine (2025)

🌍 Pedro Azagra Blázquez (born 1968) is a Spanish business executive who serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of Iberdrola, one of the world's largest electric utilities, and formerly led its United States subsidiary Avangrid as CEO from 2022 to 2025. Over more than two decades at Iberdrola he became known as a behind-the-scenes architect of the group's international expansion, overseeing major mergers and acquisitions across Europe and the Americas before moving into top operational roles, and he has combined corporate leadership with teaching corporate finance at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE) and holding board positions at institutions such as Yale New Haven Hospital and the Edison Electric Institute.

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Early life and education

🧒 Family background and early interests. Pedro Azagra Blázquez was born in 1968 in Madrid, Spain, and grew up in a milieu that mixed academic ambition with athletics and public service. As a teenager he was a standout basketball player for the Estudiantes club’s junior team, reaching Spain’s national high school finals in 1986 under coach Pepu Hernández, a formative experience that reinforced teamwork and competitive discipline. He also completed military training, serving as a second lieutenant in the Spanish Army and graduating first in his class, an episode often cited as evidence of his methodical and resilient character.

🎓 University studies and global outlook. Azagra pursued a dual degree in Business Administration and Law at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE) in Madrid, a Jesuit institution known for combining rigorous analytical training with an emphasis on ethics, and later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in the United States. His time at ICADE and Chicago exposed him to international classmates and mentors and shaped an analytical yet socially conscious approach to business that would later influence his work in the energy sector.

💼 Investment banking foundations. After finishing his studies, Azagra chose business over a potential career in professional sports or the armed forces and joined Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division in the 1990s, working in Madrid and London on mergers, acquisitions, and capital markets transactions. This early exposure to complex cross-border deal-making provided the financial and strategic toolkit that he would later apply to the restructuring and international expansion of Iberdrola.

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Career

Strategy and development roles at Iberdrola

⚡ Entry into Iberdrola and early strategy work. In 1997, at the age of twenty-nine, Azagra joined Iberdrola as director of strategy at a time when the European electricity market was opening to competition and the company was reassessing its long-term positioning. He contributed to Iberdrola’s early internationalization efforts and, by 2001, was leading corporate development activities, helping to design the group’s 2001–2006 strategic plan, which prioritized growth beyond the Spanish market.

🌐 Chief development officer and global expansion. In 2008 Azagra was promoted to chief development officer and joined Iberdrola’s executive committee, formally taking charge of mergers, acquisitions, and large strategic projects for the group. Over the following decade and a half he oversaw more than 120 acquisitions and disposals across Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific, transactions worth in aggregate over US$120 billion that underpinned Iberdrola’s transformation from a predominantly Spanish utility into a multinational clean-energy company with significant operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, Greece, France, Japan, and Australia.

🤝 Major transactions and regulatory expertise. Among the transactions associated with Azagra were Iberdrola’s takeover of Energy East in the United States, the merger of Iberdrola USA with UIL Holdings in 2015 that created Avangrid, the acquisition of ScottishPower in the United Kingdom, and the consolidation of positions in Brazil and Mexico through Neoenergia and Iberdrola México. He became known in Spanish business media as “el artífice en la sombra” (“the architect in the shadows”) for his discreet but central role in these operations and for his direct dealings with regulators such as the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and state utility commissions.

Chief executive of Avangrid

🏙️ Appointment to Avangrid and the PNM Resources deal. In June 2022 Iberdrola appointed Azagra chief executive officer of Avangrid, its U.S. subsidiary based in Connecticut, making him one of a small number of Spanish executives heading a publicly traded American company. He arrived as Avangrid was pursuing an US$8 billion acquisition of PNM Resources, a New Mexico-based utility, a deal that had encountered regulatory resistance in that state and was widely viewed as a test of Iberdrola’s U.S. strategy.

📈 Strategic pivot and U.S. investment program. Despite intensive engagement with regulators and stakeholders, the PNM Resources merger was ultimately blocked and abandoned, a rare setback for Iberdrola’s expansion plans; Azagra responded by refocusing Avangrid on organic growth in regulated networks and renewables. Under his leadership Iberdrola moved to strengthen its U.S. base by acquiring the remaining 18.4 percent of Avangrid it did not already own for approximately US$2.55 billion in 2024, leading to Avangrid’s delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, and the business invested more than US$15 billion in wind, solar, and grid-modernization projects over roughly three years. In 2025 CEO Magazine, in association with Avangrid, recognized him as a “CEO of the Year” runner-up, highlighting his role in steering the company through a challenging environment while maintaining growth in clean-energy infrastructure.

Chief executive of Iberdrola

🏢 Elevation to chief executive of Iberdrola. In June 2025 Iberdrola announced that Azagra would become chief executive officer of the group, succeeding Armando Martínez and becoming the company’s number-two executive under long-serving executive chairman Ignacio Sánchez Galán. The move, framed as part of a generational renewal of leadership after nearly twenty-five years of Azagra’s service to the company, placed a trusted strategist in charge of day-to-day management while Galán continued to shape overall direction as chair.

🔌 Strategic priorities as group CEO. As group CEO, Azagra has maintained Iberdrola’s focus on the energy transition while emphasizing the expansion and digitalization of electricity networks and large-scale renewable projects, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom. For the 2025–2028 period the company announced plans to invest about €58 billion, with a strong allocation to regulated grids and offshore and onshore renewable generation, and it reported record net profit of €5.6 billion in 2024 and a market capitalization exceeding €100 billion, performance that analysts cited as evidence of investor confidence in the strategy pursued under Galán and Azagra.

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Compensation and wealth

💰 Executive remuneration in the United States and Spain. As Avangrid’s chief executive in the United States, Azagra received total compensation of around US$10.7 million for 2023, including a base salary of roughly US$1.15 million, annual bonus, and long-term incentive stock awards valued at about US$7.3 million that vest between 2026 and 2028 subject to performance targets. His pay package, which also incorporated relocation benefits, more than doubled that of Iberdrola’s then-group CEO in Spain and approached the remuneration of the executive chairman, reflecting the higher pay scales typical of U.S. corporate roles. In 2022, a partial year in the position, his compensation was estimated at about US$4.85 million.

📊 Shareholding, board roles, and net worth. Upon becoming CEO of the Iberdrola Group, Azagra held 82,386 shares in the company—around 0.001 percent of its capital—worth roughly €1 million at prevailing market prices, with further equity awards expected to form a significant portion of his long-term remuneration alongside a multimillion-euro salary. His wealth is therefore closely tied to Iberdrola’s performance rather than to diversified holdings, and he has been described as a career corporate operator rather than a public billionaire. Beyond Iberdrola he has served on boards including Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut and the Edison Electric Institute in the United States, and has held directorships at group affiliates such as Siemens Gamesa, Neoenergia in Brazil, Iberdrola México, and U.S. utilities Rochester Gas & Electric and New York State Electric & Gas, roles that underscore both his sector specialization and his engagement in civic and industry organizations.

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Personal life

🏀 Family, languages, and basketball. Azagra maintains a low public profile in his private life, although company biographies note that he is married with four children and divides his time between Europe and the United States. He is fluent in Spanish and English and remains closely associated with basketball; standing around 1.90 meters tall, he played for Estudiantes’ junior squad and twice finished runner-up in Spain’s national high-school league in the mid-1980s, and he has continued to follow the sport and support his former club and the Spanish national team as a fan.

📚 Academic involvement and mentoring. Alongside his corporate responsibilities, Azagra has spent more than two decades as an adjunct professor at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE), teaching corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions to graduate students and frequently delivering guest lectures. Colleagues and students have described him as a demanding but generous mentor who emphasizes ethics, long-term thinking, and the social implications of investment decisions, reflecting the values of his Jesuit education and Iberdrola’s positioning as a pioneer in renewable energy.

🧠 Leadership style and personal interests. Those who have worked with Azagra portray him as analytical and calm, with a meticulous approach to preparation shaped by his legal training and years of deal-making, but also as a manager who delegates authority and promotes an open, inclusive culture, particularly during his time leading Avangrid’s diverse U.S. workforce. He is known for dry humor and for occasionally drawing on anecdotes from his military service, international postings, or basketball days to illustrate points in meetings, and in private he is reported to enjoy reading history and listening to classical music, preferences consistent with an understated public persona that eschews flamboyance in favor of professional focus.

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Governance, challenges, and controversies

⚖️ PNM Resources merger setback and sector headwinds. Although Azagra has not been associated with personal scandals, his leadership has been tested by high-profile corporate challenges, notably the failed attempt by Avangrid to acquire PNM Resources, which he inherited as incoming CEO and which was ultimately blocked by New Mexico regulators despite extensive negotiations. The episode represented a setback for Iberdrola’s U.S. expansion strategy, but observers noted that Azagra responded by redirecting resources toward consolidating Avangrid and expanding regulated networks and renewable assets, rather than pursuing further contested takeovers. More broadly, his tenure has coincided with volatile energy prices, supply-chain constraints affecting renewable-energy projects, and shifting policy environments in the wake of events such as the war in Ukraine; he has argued in interviews that the energy transition in the United States is “unstoppable” despite political swings, positioning Iberdrola to benefit from long-term decarbonization trends.

🏛️ Corporate governance and succession dynamics. Azagra’s promotion to group CEO in 2025 also raised questions about governance within Iberdrola, as he replaced Armando Martínez, a close ally of chairman Ignacio Sánchez Galán who had occupied the role for only about three years before taking early retirement with a reported €4.4 million severance package. Commentators observed that the CEO position at Iberdrola is structurally circumscribed by the strong executive role of the chairman, and Spanish media commonly described Azagra as the company’s “number two,” suggesting that he would initially operate under Galán’s strategic shadow even as he assumed responsibility for day-to-day management. At the time of his appointment, however, investors appeared to welcome the continuity represented by a long-serving insider, and no major shareholder revolts or governance disputes were reported.

🕊️ Ethical reputation and public positioning. Azagra has avoided direct implication in Iberdrola’s past controversies, including the so-called Villarejo affair in Spain, and as a senior executive he has emphasized ethical conduct and transparency, themes reflected in Avangrid’s repeated inclusion among the World’s Most Ethical Companies rankings published by the Ethisphere Institute during his leadership. He frequently represents Iberdrola at international business and climate forums, including events attended by Spain’s King Felipe VI and senior policymakers, but generally refrains from partisan commentary, instead advocating accelerated investment in green infrastructure and electrification. Under his watch Avangrid was also cited by Newsweek as one of America’s greenest companies in 2024, contributing to his image as a proponent of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles within the utility sector.

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Legacy and recognition

🏅 Reputation as an international deal-maker. Commentators have noted that Azagra’s career is unusual even by senior-executive standards, combining early experience in competitive sports and the military with decades in investment banking and corporate development before his appointment to top operational roles. Colleagues have likened his approach to that of a basketball point guard—constantly scanning the court for opportunities and enabling teammates—an analogy that echoes his reputation inside Iberdrola as a strategic operator who quietly orchestrated many of the transactions that reshaped the group’s global footprint.

🌍 Transatlantic profile and ongoing influence. By leading both Avangrid, a U.S.-listed utility, and subsequently the Iberdrola Group, Azagra has joined a small cohort of Spanish executives with prominent international roles, serving informally as an ambassador for Spanish industry in the United States through his involvement with the Spain–U.S. Chamber of Commerce and high-profile bilateral business events. He continues to return periodically to Madrid to support youth sports and to teach at ICADE, and he is often described as an unassuming figure who prefers substantive discussions of grids, regulation, and project finance to corporate ceremony, characteristics that, together with his long association with Ignacio Sánchez Galán, are likely to shape how he steers Iberdrola through the next phase of the global energy transition.

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