Spain's Telefonica appoints Emilio Gayo as operations chief

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica has appointed Emilio Gayo as its new chief operating officer, it said on Thursday, in a reshuffle after Marc Murtra took over as executive chairman in mid-January.

Gayo, 59, joined Telefonica in 2004 and has run its Spanish business since 2018.

He replaces Angel Vila, who had been in the post since July 2017. Vila is set to take on a role as an adviser to Murtra, the company said in a regulatory filing. Vila will also remain on the board of Britain's Virgin-Media O2 and join the board of Germany's Telefonica Deutschland, according to the filing.

Gayo will also oversee Hispam, Telefonica's umbrella unit for Latin America that was until now the remit of Chief Financial Officer Laura Abasolo.

Telefonica also named Borja Ochoa as the new head of Telefonica Spain and Sofia Collado to spearhead Telefonica Tech. Both executives come from defence and IT company Indra, of which Murtra was CEO between 2021 and 2025.

Murtra, whose appointment in January was met with accusations of political meddling by the Spanish government, has ordered a strategic review before the end of this year and called for the sector's consolidation in Europe to gain "strategic autonomy".

(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Susan Fenton)