Emilio BotÃn
Emilio Botin - Sanz de Sautuola García de los Ríos ( born October 1, 1934 in Santander, Cantabria ) is a Spanish banker.
Career
Emilio Botin is the third generation president of Banco Santander, successor of his father and grandfather, both also Emilio Botin were called. His great-grandfather was one of 1857 to the nine founding members of the Bank. Under the leadership of Emilio Botin Banco Santander current rose to become the leading European financial institution.
Botin was educated by Jesuits and studied law at the Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao. At 24 he joined the run from the Father Bank; at the age of 30 he was promoted to General. In 1986, he took over the presidency from his father.
The Spanish banking system was characterized up to his inauguration by cartel-like structures. The leading representatives of the Spanish banks met regularly for lunch in Madrid. The conditions that they charged to their customers, differed only slightly from one another. Botin announced at this regular meeting. Instead, it offered its customers much higher interest on credit balances and significantly lower loan interest rates than its competitors - and reached so that his bank grew at the expense of its competitors. In 1993 Banco Santander take over, which was experiencing financial difficulties bank Banesto. In 1999 followed the merger with Banco Central Hispano (BCH ), ostensibly a merger of equals. The merged company changed its name to Banco Santander Central Hispano. However Botin urged the two directors of the BCH from office, which led to protracted legal disputes. Since August 13, 2007 the company operated again under Banco Santander.
After Banco Santander had risen to become the leading Spanish bank, followed a policy of offensive expansion abroad, firstly by setting up of subsidiaries around the world, principally in Europe and South America, on the other, through the acquisition of financial institutions or the acquisition of investments. Today, in 2008, Banco Santander is one of the world's ten largest banking companies.
Emilio Botin is considered to be reclusive, but maintained good contacts with the former Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero and his Economy Minister Pedro Solbes which - according to Le Monde - owed him that she could boast the strength of the Spanish banking system. Le Monde points out that Botin had made to his guiding principle the care with all risk-taking. His statement that his company was better prepared than the competition to survive the financial crisis in October 2008, was not bragging.
With the acquisition of a number of UK financial houses since 2004 Botin became known in the Anglo- Saxon world. On YouTube, some videos are circulating that recover damages from the highly colored Spanish pronunciation Don Emilio in English.
Emilio Botin is married to Marquesa de Paloma O'Shea, a Basque nobleman of Irish origin. The family that lives in a large castle-like estate in Madrid, has six children. The private family fortune was estimated at over $ 1 billion in 2009 and is thus among the highest thousand assets worldwide. It is believed that Ana Patricia Botin, his eldest daughter, currently (2008) Director General of Banesto, will succeed him as president of the Santander Group ..