Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000891478-25-000054
Chunk: 261

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 20-F
Chunk 261
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 with the current digital paradigm. This is shown by the experience of countries such as the United States, Canada or Germany, where virtual-only meetings are the majority practice among the major listed companies. This is also attested by the evolution of Spanish legislation after the experience of the pandemic, with the admission of the possibility of holding meetings and assemblies exclusively by remote means and with the express statutory authorisation to this effect agreed by the vast majority of our shareholders.

• Fourthly, the initiative allows for a more effective allocation of the Group’s resources and a relative reduction in the costs associated with a meeting of this nature, benefiting Banco Santander and all the shareholders.

• Finally, a virtual AGM will considerably reduce the environmental impact of a meeting held in a format requiring the physical travel of attendees, employees and other persons involved in the preparation and holding of the general meeting, particularly when an equivalent result can be achieved without such travel thanks to existing technology developed by the Group.

Attendance at the 2025 AGM shall be necessarily through the General Shareholders' Meeting Platform accessible on the corporate website www.santander.com, through the "General Shareholders' Meeting" site, or on the website www.juntasantander.com.

Since attendance at general meetings is not paid, a general policy in this regard is not necessary. However, Banco Santander offers shareholders that participate in our general meeting a commemorative courtesy gift, as has been tradition for decades.

Annual report 2024 254

| Contents |     | Business model and strategy |     | Sustainability statement |     | Corporate governance |     | Economic and financial review |     | Riskmanagement and compliance |

#### 4. BOARD OF DIRECTORS

#### A balanced board
→ 15 directors: 13 non-executive and 2 executive

→ Majority of independent directors (66.67%)

→ Balanced presence of women and men (40%-60%)

| 1Pamela Walkden        
 Member                 
 Non-executive director 
 (independent)          
 òpCŸ                   |     | 2Héctor Grisi          
 CEO                    
 Executive director     
 òp                     |     | 3Ana Botín             
 Executive Chair        
 Executive director     
 òCp                    |     | 4Glenn Hutchins                          
 Vice Chair and Lead Independent Director 
 Non-executive director (independent)     
 ¢¢CpC                                    |     | 5José Antonio Álvarez  
 Vice Chair             
 Non-executive director 
 òpp                    |     |