Fernando Carro de Prada – CEO

Fernando Carro has been CEO at Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH since 1 July 2018. The Spaniard completed his Abitur exams at the German School in Barcelona. That was followed by training as an industrial management assistance at BASF in Spain and a Master of Business and Engineering course at the University of Karlsruhe. During that time he was involved in the student organisation AIESEC in Venezuela and Germany. From 1990 to 1991 he was chairman of the board in Germany and then for two years president of AIESEC International.

After completing his studies, Carro joined Bertelsmann AG in Gütersloh. He proved to be successful at the international company in different positions over many years. He was in senior management in both the media and educational sections at Bertelsmann. Most recently, Carro was CEO at Bertelsmann subsidiary Arvato, a service company with some 70,000 employees, and he also represented Arvato as a member of the Bertelsmann SE board.

Carro has been interested in sport, and football in particular, since early childhood. For many years, the passionate tennis fan was a member at FC Barcelona but his season ticket for the legendary Camp Nou stadium will not be used as often now he has taken up his leading position at Bayer 04. 'Bayer instead of Barca' - that is now the maxim for Carro, who also worked as a freelance sports journalist for different newspapers in Spain, Austria and Germany at the start of the 1980s. Combining enthusiasm for football with economic expertise and establishing Bayer 04 at the top of German football is the target for Carro, who sees a professional dream come true in taking up his post at the Werkself.