Álvarez (pictured), who will be based in Madrid, left BT in 2017 after a career of 18 years with the group. Since then he has been an independent consultant and, for two years, has been CEO of SIA, a Madrid-based cyber security specialist.
He also chairs Eaglecrest Telecoms, the company behind the Islalink and Ionian subsea cable projects.
Álvarez said: “The Neoris culture and its strong commitment to innovation make it an exciting challenge. I am sure that we will achieve many successes together and contribute to each other. Building a better, more responsible and sustainable future is one of the main challenges we share, and this is a unique opportunity.”
Neoris, with more than 5,000 employees, says it “has been contributing to the digital transformation of some of the world’s largest companies for more than 22 years. It combines a deep knowledge of the industry with the highest technological expertise in the market to develop innovative solutions based on the latest technologies.”
Martín Mendez, global CEO of Neoris, said: “I am confident that the leadership capacity of Luis Álvarez Satorre as well as his long career in the technology field will allow Neoris to successfully strengthen its growth in the European market.”
Álvarez was one of six CEOs of BT Global Services to serve since 2000, from Andy Green in the early years of the century to Bas Burger, who has held the role since 2017. Green no longer includes his BT Global Services role in his LinkedIn entry, though says there that he was aboard member from 1987 to 2007.
BT Global Services CEOs include Hanif Lalani, CEO for 15 months until early 2010. He was later implicated in an insider trading deal. The Autorité des marchés financiers, the stock market regulator of France, fined Lalani €1.5 million and five members of his extended family a total of €4.6 million for insider trading. In 2012: his relatives had bought Net2S shares in anticipation of BT’s bid for the company.
Álvarez, who was not involved in the Lalani scandal, became CEO of BT Global Services after being promoted from president of its operations in Latin America plus Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a role he’d had since 1999.
His final spell as BT was clouded by a further scandal, though he was not implicated, when the group it had to write off £530 million in 2017 after what the company called “inappropriate behaviour” in BT Italy. The head of BT Europe and the CEO of BT Italia both left.
In August 2022 the UK accountancy regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, fined auditors PwC £1.75 million for not applying “the necessary professional scepticism” to BT’s Italian results.
Álvarez survived until June 2017, when he was overtaken by the Italian scandal, though he was not implicated.
