Biography

Mr. Vargas joined Rhône in 2007 as a Senior Advisor and became a Managing Director in 2017. He was named Head of Europe in June 2026. Mr. Vargas temporarily stepped down as Managing Director in 2021 to lead Maxam and returned to the role in January 2024, remaining Non-Executive Chairman of Maxam.

Prior to becoming a Managing Director in 2017, he served as the Chairman and CEO of Aena SME, S.A. leading its restructuring, partial privatization and IPO in 2015. Prior to joining Aena, he held senior management positions at Vocento S.A., where he served as CFO until his promotion to CEO. Before his tenure in the communications sector, he was the CFO and General Secretary of JOTSA (part of the Philipp Holzmann Group).

In addition to Mr. Vargas’s role as an Executive Chairman of Maxam, he also serves on the Board of Directors of Fluidra S.A., ASK Chemicals, part of Rhône’s portfolio, and Petra Diamonds. Over his career, Mr. Vargas has also served on the Board of Directors of several other companies, including Aena, Vocento, Diario ABC, Cadena COPE, Net TV, and Diario El Correo. In 2015, he was awarded ‘Best Executive of the Year’ by the Spanish Association of Executives (AED) and acknowledged as ‘Person of the Year’ within the Economic and Financial world by ‘El Economista’ (Spanish Financial Outlet).

Mr. Vargas earned degrees in Economics and Business from Complutense University of Madrid and holds a law degree from UNED. He is also a Chartered Accountant.