Patricia Such NEW CHALLENGES AHEAD DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND CORPORATE OPERATIONS AT SEAT S.A. AND VOLKSWAGEN GROUP COMPANIES IN SPAIN READ MORE READ MORE You have just taken on a new role at SEAT S.A. What does this appointment mean for you? It’s a really interesting challenge. My new man-agement area is made up of a flexible, transversal team that allows me to provide services to SEAT, CUPRA and the Volkswagen Group companies in Spain. It’s a transversal area that already collabo-rates with other areas and departments, allowing us to provide support in everything related to busi-ness development, innovation, the most important social issues and, of course, always focused on the company’s future. We manage such powerful plat-forms as public-private cooperation or health and occupational risk prevention strategy from a single policy. In the midst of the company’s transforma-tion towards electrification, how important is it to create an area with these characteristics? Car manufacturers play a crucial role in the elec-trification journey, but there are other organisations and institutions playing an important role, such as em-ployers, public administration, trade unions or other business partners. Part of our responsibility is to bring all these actors together to accelerate the change to-wards electrification. In Spain, we’re lagging behind the rest of Europe, but we’re convinced that we can speed up the process with our support. How will you promote public-private coop-eration at SEAT S.A.? We have the experience of the COVID-19 pan-demic, which was dramatic for everyone. We there-fore promoted public-private collaboration to re-spond to the social situation. We have a similar approach now. We’re going to establish a dialogue to convince the various institutions of the need to work together to develop electrification. As our CEO says, we’re not facing a typical transformation, it’s a com-plete disruption. Education will play a key role in these decision areas to achieve effective and agile collabo-ration, so that its contribution is not just a declaration of intent. The automotive industry remains a masculinised sector. How do you see your appointment and the role of women in the sector in general? It’s a source of pride for me, especially because it’s a way of thanking all those people who have believed in my professional potential and supported my development throughout my career. I believe that women have a lot to contribute and that diversity enriches all organisations. I know full well that this is a male sector, for I’ve been working at SEAT and CUPRA for more than 22 years, the majority of my colleagues are men. But I’ve seen a significant change in recent years and I think we’ll see even more of it in the future. You’ve been in charge of medical services at SEAT S.A. for more than a decade. What are some of the milestones you’ve achieved during this time? I studied medicine and, looking back, I think I did it because I like helping people. I chose occupational medicine, which is a little-known, undervalued specialty among doctors, as it allows us to reach out to management and offer collective solutions. I loved taking care of patients, but occupational medicine enables me to help people, not just one by one, but a hundred or a thousand at a time. I’ve been lucky to be part of a German company like the Volkswagen Group, because there, occupational risk prevention is highly valued in Germany. For this reason, I believe that promoting interesting projects such as CARS, the Health Care and Rehabilitation Centre of SEAT S.A., is the most important milestone achieved by the Prevention and Health team. There’s no centre with these characteristics for its employees in the Spanish business world, and this fills me with pride. CARS offers healthcare in many areas, such as psychology, psychiatry, traumatology, rehabilitation... But it also applies a preventive focus; it looks to the future. Proof of this, for example, is that we were very well prepared when the pandemic came, even more so than some public health centres. Speaking of the pandemic, SEAT S.A. was at the forefront of producing emergency respirators. How do you recall that time? Although it was unexpected, it’s true that by then we had a very strong infrastructure. And we were pioneers even in terms of ordering closures. We felt helpless, the hospitals were saturated, and we wondered how we could help. It was clear to me: make respirators. We turned the SEAT Leon assembly line into a respirator line, using the car’s materials. We were able to distribute more than 600 respirators to hospitals in Spain. Then came vaccinations. We created mobile hospitals with nursing and administrative staff. We set up an assembly line, so that while 300 people were being vaccinated in other vaccination centres, we were vaccinating 3,000 people. Our collaboration was vital for immunising the city of Barcelona and the Balearic Islands in record time. It’s a source of pride for the people who work at SEAT S.A. They worked together in a totally selfless way. It’s one of the nicest stories I’ve been experienced in the company. How do you see the company’s future? With excitement and enthusiasm. CUPRA has become a top brand in just six years. I really want to be part of this future. — PATRICIA SUCH LEADS A NEWLY CREATED AREA THAT WILL BE A NEW PARTNER TO SOCIETY, INTEGRATING INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS, HEALTH AND EMERGENCIES, SAFETY, CASA SEAT AND CUPRA CITY GARAGE MADRID “PART OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO ALIGN ALL ACTORS TO SPEED UP THE TRANSFORMATION” “WE WILL CONVINCE THE VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE NEED TO COLLABORATE MUTUALLY IN DEVELOPING ELECTRIFICATION” What’s your main virtue? Optimism and perseverance. A defect? A lot. I’m messy and sometimes too honest. Your ideal of happiness. Sharing time with the people I love, my family, my friends. What or who would you have liked to be? Leonardo da Vinci. Someone you admire. My maternal grandparents, who have given me my basic values. What music do you listen to when you’re driving? If I go with the children, they decide. If I’m alone, ‘80s and ‘90s music. I’m a fan of Hombres G and a-ha. What’s your dream car? CUPRA Tavascan. Any pending dreams you want to make come true? I’d like to write a novel. What do you value most in a person? Kindness. A series or movie? Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.