Javier Oleaga, new Vice-Chairman of MONDRAGON

Javier Oleaga was today appointed the new Vice-Chairman of the Corporation’s Components Division by the MONDRAGON Standing Committee. His term as Vice-Chairman of the Division will begin on January 1, when he is set to take over from José Miguel Arregi, who now retires after a long and successful career holding various posts in different areas of the Corporation. For the last few years Javier has been the Managing Director of the cooperative Copreci, based in Aretxabaleta (Gipuzkoa) and specialising in manufacture of household appliance components.

Javier Oleaga was born in Oñati in Gipuzkoa province in 1964 and has an advanced-level degree in Industrial Engineering from the Bilbao University Technical College of Engineering. 

His professional career is linked to the cooperative Copreci, at which he has held different posts over the last 26 years. He began work in 1990 as Quality Manager. In 1995 he was appointed Manager of the Gas Cooking Business Unit, and in 2000 he became the cooperative’s Managing Director. During his 16 years at the forefront of the project, Copreci has consolidated its international expansion process by opening new production subsidiaries in Italy, Turkey and China. The Aretxabaleta-based cooperative, which posted a turnover of €245m in 2015, employs 1,500 people at its production plants in Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico and China and is a world leader in the household appliance components sector.