-The association is cementing its position as a point of reference in corporate reputation management.

-Antonio Brufau, Chairman of Repsol, reviews the fRC’s activities and hands over the rotating presidency to abertis.

The Spanish deputy prime minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, today presided over the event to celebrate the 5^th anniversary of the Corporate Reputation Forum (Foro de Reputación Corporativa, or fRC) at the Repsol YPF headquarters in Madrid.

The President of the Corporate Reputation Forum for 2007, Antonio Brufau, highlighted the commitment made to society by the companies making up the fRC, adding that “Companies’ reputation will depend increasingly on how they approach the global challenges of business management.”

Antonio Brufau, who is the chairman of Repsol, handed over the presidency of the Corporate Reputation Forum for 2008 to abertis, represented at the occasion by its managing director, Salvador Alemany.

The event celebrating the 5^th anniversary of the fRC featured speeches by the deputy prime minister of Spain, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the chairman of Repsol and President of the forum for 2007, Antonio Brufau, the vice-president of the Spanish UNICEF committee, Juan Ignacio de la Mata, and the Director of the social innovation institute at the ESADE business school and former Director General of Intermón Oxfam, Ignasi Carreras.

It was also attended by representatives of some of the companies which make up the fRC, including the chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán; the chairman of Iberia, Fernando Conte; the director general of the chairman’s technical secretariat at Telefónica, Luis Abril; the head of the office of the chairman and external relations at the Agbar group, Andreu Claret Serra; the head of corporate reputation and responsibility at the BBVA, Antoni Ballabriga; the president of the code of conduct committee and internal auditing manager at Gas Natural, Carlos Ayuso and the head of corporate communication and institutional relations at the Novartis España group, Montserrat Tarres.

In his speech, Antonio Brufau highlighted the fRC’s intensive activities in the course of 2007, a year in which major projects were consolidated, such as the agreement to co-operate with UNICEF in the dissemination of and support for its’ children’s programmes. Brufau also presented the actions carried out within the framework of the campaign “2015: Un mundo mejor para Joana” (2015: A Better World for Joana), the aim of which is to promote and publicise the United Nations’ 8 Millennium Development Goals to improve quality of life on a global level.                                       

The fRC, a global benchmark for business in the area of corporate reputation

The companies in the fRC are part of the Global Compact, a United Nations scheme which works for global businesses to act as socially responsible citizens, driving corporate responsibility policies in the countries where they operate.

The fRC also backs achievement of the Millennium Development goals by raising awareness of them, particularly among businesses.

In 2007 the Corporate Reputation Forum has undertaken major projects together with international bodies like UNICEF. It has also implemented the Reptrak project for measuring corporate reputation, setting up the Reputation Forum in Mexico and taking part in the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) España, a work group adapting the LBG standard to Spanish companies in order to measure their commitment to the community.