I first came across Ana Patricia Botín nine years ago in Mexico City. The young chief executive of Santander Investment was in town to buy a bank. Mexico was in the throes of a deep financial crisis and virtually the entire banking sector was up for grabs. At the event to announce the acquisition, Botín, 35, was the very model of a modern female conquistador - disciplined, composed, determined. By contrast, the former owner of the Mexican bank, who had lost his shirt during the crisis, looked as sick as a parrot.

A few months later, Botín was back in Mexico to address a bankers’ conference in Cancun. As she rose to speak, the hall began to empty. The audience, almost entirely male, took one look at the petite foreigner and drifted out of the room in search of coffee. You fools, I thought. This woman could eat you for breakfast.