In February 2002, Ms Botín, 44, became chairwoman of Banesto, a medium-sized bank owned by Santander. At the time, conspiracy theorists speculated she was being given the opportunity to prove herself as a retail banker with a view to taking over as chief executive of the parent bank when her father retires a few years from now. Or, in the words of a competitor, “her task is to break the balls of Banco Popular”, Spain’s third-largest bank.
To date, she has done a fine job at Banesto, leading a turnaround in which the bank’s profits rise 12% to E270m in the first half of 2004.
She has a wealth of experience in different areas of the business, having started at the old JPMorgan. Subsequently she joined Banco Santander as a debt trader, and then built up the bank’s Latin American franchise and tried to build its investment bank – a poisoned chalice of a task handed to her when she was not yet 30 years old.
Ms Botín is now on the board of parent company Santander. The conspiracy theorists may well be right.
Risks: With only a 3% stake in Europe’s fourth-largest bank, Mr Botín may not be able to place his candidate in the top post – assuming she is his candidate, something which is difficult to tell with such an enigmatic banker. And if Ms Botín fails to make CEO of Santander, it is doubtful other banks would take her on, as they would always wonder where her true loyalties lay.
