Carlos Espina was previously CEO of Holcim Argentina (2017-19); and Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Holcim, based at the Holcim Research Centre near Lyon (2012-17).

He holds an engineering degree in Mining, Metallurgy & Materials Science from the Universdiad de Oviedo, Spain (1990) and an MBA from EUDEM, Escuela Europea de Desarrollo Empresarial, Spain (1999).

He began his career in the United Kingdom as a researcher at AEA Technology. He joined the R&D Centre of Aceralia Corporación Siderúrgica (1995-) as Manager of the Product Applications Engineering Department, before becoming Vice President of Intellectual Property, knowledge management and artificial intelligence upon the merger with Arcelor in 2002. Within the Arcelor Mittal Group, he successively held the positions of Vice-President in charge of R&D, Europe, and Vice-President in charge of R&D, Automotive before he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Méditerranée.

He was a member of the Holcim Awards jury for Latin America in 2017.