Background

Emilio Botín

Spain’s Botín family is rich but never idle. Emilio Botín, 74, the family’s billionaire patriarch and chairman of the Santander banking group, works all hours and expects his top executives to be on call. Snap Sunday board meetings are a speciality of Emilio, who has spent the past 23 years at the head of what is now the eurozone’s biggest lender by market value.

Ana Patricia, 48, eldest of Emilio’s six children and chief executive of Banesto, the majority controlled but separately listed retail banking franchise, bristles with nervous energy. Ambitious and restless, Wall Street-trained Ana Patricia is often cited as heiress-apparent to the Santander throne. Several of her siblings have either worked or still work in banking.