Ezequiel Szafir Holcman

CEO of Openbank and Santander Consumer Finance

Ezequiel is CEO of Openbank and Santander Consumer Finance. Before joining Grupo Santander, he was a vice-president and board member at Amazon Europe, based in Luxembourg. 

His experience in digital technology dates back to 1998 when he joined media and telecommunications giant Liberty Global as vice-president of their internet provider. Based in the Netherlands, he led the deployment of the first pan-European digital fiber network for internet access, linking the hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) cable networks and the development of the first real-time video streaming service.

Ezequiel was also a consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Amsterdam, where he focused on developing digital technology strategy. He later joined Nike Europe, where he was a member of the European Management team based in the Netherlands, holding the role of Strategy and Operations Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He then moved to Deloitte, where he was a partner of the Financial Advisory Services practice, working with debt restructuring and operational turnaround for large retail companies in Europe. He also served as CEO of Tendam (Grupo Cortefiel), an international fashion retailer with more than two thousand stores across 50 countries. 

Ezequiel is a Dutch citizen born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he started as a journalist for the newspapers Clarín and Ámbito Financiero. He is the author of two novels, Marina de Buenos Aires and París 2041, both published by Penguin-Random House. He holds a PhD in psychology from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and is specialized in personality development. He also earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from the ADL School of Management at Boston College, as well as a Bachelor of Science from the Engineering School of UADE University, and was a research fellow at the Center for Technology and Industrial Policy Development of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1995 to 1996. At MIT, Ezequiel specialized in lean manufacturing, writing his thesis about the future of the electric cars in 1996. He also studied literature at Cambridge University.