Like Father, Like Daughter at Banco Santander
By Raphael Minder

MADRID — Banco Santander decided on Wednesday to keep its leadership in the family by appointing Ana Patricia Botín as executive chairwoman to succeed her father, Emilio Botín, who died the night before.

Ms. Botín, 53, takes the helm at about the same age that Mr. Botín was when he took charge from his father in 1986. Ms. Botín, who has held several top positions at the bank, was approved unanimously by the board of Santander, Spain’s largest bank by assets.

Mr. Botín’s death was unexpected, and he had recently shown no inclination to retire soon despite being one of Spain’s longest-serving corporate chiefs.

Santander was transformed over three decades into a behemoth of international finance by Mr. Botín, whose aggressive acquisition strategy extended the bank’s footprint from Brazil to Britain and the United States. When Mr. Botín succeeded his father, the family-controlled bank was the seventh largest in Spain.

Jesús Sánchez Quiñones, the director general of Renta 4, a Madrid brokerage firm, said Ms. Botín faced a “big challenge to maintain the kind of position the bank has gained under her father, not only in terms of size but also as one of the few big banks not to need any rescue funding during the crisis.”

He added that he expected Ms. Botín to have a “less presidential style” of leadership than her father. He noted that she could rely on a strong management team, including the chief executive, Javier Marín, who was appointed last year.

Ms. Botín has a strong track record of her own. She studied in the United States and then started her investment banking career at JPMorgan Chase in New York. She returned to Spain to join Santander in 1988, rising rapidly through the ranks and establishing herself as her father’s heir apparent.

But her ascent did not come without some turbulence. In 1999, Santander was acquiring another bank, Banco Central Hispano, when El Pais, Spain’s most influential newspaper, pronounced Ms. Botín “the most powerful woman in Spain.” The day after the El Pais article, she resigned abruptly as executive vice president. Some analysts at the time speculated that the newspaper profile fueled jealousy at Central Hispano and could have created problems for her father.

Three years later, however, Ms. Botín was back and took charge of one of Santander’s main retail businesses, Banesto, an appointment that made her only the second woman to run a bank in Spain. She appeared regularly on the list of the world’s most influential female executives.

In 2010, Ms. Botín left Banesto and moved to London to run Santander’s British operations, succeeding António Horta-Osório, who became chief executive of the Lloyds Banking Group.

She “certainly has plenty of international experience,” Mr. Sánchez Quiñones said.

Ms. Botín, who is married with three children, has avoided the public spotlight. According to Spanish media, she is an avid golfer — and one of her sisters was married to the golf champion Severiano Ballesteros. She also shares her mother’s passion for classical music.

Analysts said Ms. Botín would need to quickly show investors that they should maintain their faith in a family that still controls the bank even though it owns only about 2 percent of its equity. Santander shares were virtually unchanged in Madrid on Wednesday.

Mr. Botín managed to mix ruthless and rapid decision-making with “a real power of seduction” when it came to convincing his board, shareholders and politicians to back him, said Robert Tornabell Carrio, a banking professor at the Esade business school in Barcelona.

Mr. Botín was a close adviser to a succession of Spanish governments, also acting during the recent crisis years as a de facto ambassador for corporate Spain even as his own bank reduced significantly its reliance on earnings from its home market.

Ms. Botín takes the helm “incredibly well prepared, but she will still have to win support from American funds and others — and that won’t be easy,” Professor Tornabell Carrio said. Succeeding her father is “a difficult act to follow, however good you are.”

Ms. Botín is now in charge of a bank that is also probably more focused on developing its existing businesses rather than growing through takeovers, as it has shown recently in Spain. Santander has allowed other institutions to buy the country’s top struggling savings banks, noted Manuel Romera, finance professor at the IE Business School in Madrid. Banco Santander, he added, “can’t just cruise along, but it’s certainly become too big to fail.”

波亭家族第4代 安娜逆轉 掌西班牙銀行

15年前，安娜‧波亭（Ana Botin）被西班牙國際銀行（Santander）董事長趕下資深經理人的位子。這位董事長正好是她父親。如今她重回西班牙國際銀行，且在董事會一致同意下接任執行長。不過就在她正式接掌這個大位前幾個小時，父親老波亭才因心臟病發，突然過世。

不過安娜的接棒並不令人意外，數十年來她所受的教育和訓練，都是為了這一天的到來。她將代表波亭家族第四代，繼續經營這家全歐洲市值最高的銀行。但她憑的不只是這個身份，她將用自己的本事證明一切。

今年53歲的安娜會說五種語言，從2010年至今就一直擔任西班牙國際銀行英國事業的負責人。在那之前八年，擔任西班牙國際銀行子公司Banesto銀行董事長。

她在西班牙、瑞士、英國和美國受教育，哈佛商學院畢業的她身為家中長女，也是老波亭六個子女中唯一在銀行業展露頭角者。她也是各大排行榜上的常客，例如2005年獲選為金融時報歐洲20大商界女強人之首。

安娜和父親一樣，都熱愛打高爾夫，還連續於1973和1974年奪下西班牙青少年高球錦標賽冠軍。銀行職涯是從1981年大學一畢業就進入摩根大通開始，24歲就當上副總裁，在企業和投資銀行部門一待就是八年。1988年回到西班牙國際銀行，負責拓展國際市場，尤其是拉美市場。

後來掌管英國事業時，在策略上做了重大調整，她縮減房貸業務規模，但增加企業放款與個人活期帳戶的業務，這一步棋正好助銀行躲過金融風暴。當時安娜還給自己設定一個目標，每天至少要為銀行找到一個新客戶。舉行記者會或法說會時，安娜有時還會突然拿出宣傳單，推銷到自家銀行開個支票帳戶的好處。

今年上半年，美國部門貢獻整個集團9%的獲利，西班牙本國有13%，巴西部門多達19%，但仍不如英國部門上繳的20%，是安娜經營能力的最佳證明。

金融海嘯期間擔任美國聯邦存款保險公司（FDIC）董事長的拜爾（Sheila Bair）說，安娜的姓氏不該用來評斷她有沒有接任西班牙國際銀行執行長的資格，「她就像個明星。看看她在英國的成就，她用自己的能力證明一切，任何一家銀行都會希望延攬她。她有領袖魅力、辯才無礙，具備一家國際企業高階經理人該有的能力。」

安娜現身公共場合時，一身打扮總是無懈可擊，但她不太喜歡鎂光燈，對家人的隱私也非常重視。執掌Banesto期間，身為三名子女母親的安娜，她盡量避免在晚上7點後安排任何會議，也不想干擾包括自己在內所有人的家庭生活。安娜也希望，女性能擁有和男性同等的機會。

接掌西班牙國際銀行執行長後，安娜就成了歐洲大型銀行圈中職位最高的經理人。在金融海嘯期間，歐洲銀行高階經理團隊中幾乎看不見女性。如今情況雖然已有轉變，但根據麥肯錫的調查，銀行業晉升女性的速度仍比消費產品和能源等產業還慢。

根據官方資料，截至2月為止，歐元區市值前十大銀行5%的主要管理職由女性擔任，比率上僅有美國前十大銀行的三分之一。不過，美國前十大銀行目前沒有任何一家的執行長是女性。

老波亭 靠併購打下江山

【編譯 楊宛盼】似乎擁有無窮精力的西班牙國際銀行董事長老波亭（Emilio Botin），總是一身筆挺西裝、帶著與西班牙國際品牌同色的招牌紅色領帶，快步走進辦公室，早上7、8點就開始一邊忙著打電話給其他主管、一邊簽寫給公司各部門的便條，帶領西班牙國際銀行成為雄霸一方的金融巨擘。

西班牙國際9月10日宣布，波亭在80大壽前夕因心臟病突發去世，各界同感震驚，西班牙總理拉霍伊表示波亭的死訊令他「大受衝擊」，而且前一周兩人見面時波亭身體狀況並無異樣。

波亭常打高爾夫球，游泳和騎單車，也很注重維持體力，但知情人士說，某次周日會議結束後兩天，波亭就開始覺得不舒服。

他是西班牙最有權勢的名人之一，也是西班牙國際海外擴張的背後推手。

在波亭帶領下，西班牙國際能從地區性銀行搖身一變，躍居歐元區市值最高的銀行。賓州大學華頓商學院教授吉蘭，更形容波亭在西班牙金融界的重要地位，可與同樣不久前逝世的西班牙國王卡洛斯一世，以及西班牙前總理蘇亞雷斯相提並論。

波亭家族自20世紀初就開始掌握西班牙國際，波亭1934年生於西班牙北方小鎮桑坦德（Santander，與西班牙國際銀行同名），在西班牙取得法律與經濟學學位，1960年進入家族金融事業擔任董事，1986年從父親手中接下董事長一職。

同年西班牙加入歐盟，經濟迅速起飛，波亭把握機會在西班牙金融界大舉推動併購，以壯大在歐洲市場的勢力，也因此讓他一戰成名，許多金融界大亨一生嚮往能完成一件代表性的併購交易，但無一能與波亭的輝煌紀錄相比。就連西班牙國際國內最大對手凱克薩銀行前執行長尼恩，也對波亭的工作熱情讚譽有加。

西班牙國際2004年以90億英鎊（145億美元）併購英國銀行Abbey National，為西班牙國際的跨國版圖奠定基礎。迄6月止，西班牙國際總資產高達1.2兆歐元（1.55兆美元），擁有逾18萬名員工。

Apollo全球管理公司西班牙部門主管盧比歐，對波亭對工作的無窮精力印象尤其深刻。他回憶當西班牙國際與他們公司洽談併購時，某個周六晚上10點半，波亭來電向他要董事長的電話和地址，後來波亭親自到紐約登門拜訪這名董事長，討論完併購事宜後，還拿出一張列有十項新合作項目的清單。

原文參照：
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/10/like-father-like-daughter-at-banco-santander/

2014-09-29．經濟日報．A8．國際．編譯 廖玉玲