Stanford Law School Conferences
Ana Patricia Botín
Ana Patricia Botín
Executive Chairman, Santander Group; Director, Coca-Cola Company
Ana Botín (October 1960), a graduate in Economics from the University of Bryn Mawr (USA) after having studied at Harvard, was named CEO of Santander UK in December 2010 after extensive experience in the financial industry and the Santander Group.
After eight years working in corporate and investment banking at JP Morgan, she joined the Santander Group in 1988. Ana Botín has been one of the driving forces behind Santander’s international expansion, especially in Latin America, as well as the development of corporate banking, asset management and treasury. She is a board member of Banco Santander and has been a member of the management committee since 1989.
From 2002 until her departure to the UK, she was chair of Banesto. Under her leadership, Banesto improved its brand recognition and service quality, to lead the rankings. It expanded its market share in segments such as SMEs and won Euromoney’s award for the best bank in Spain three times.
As CEO of Santander UK, she has led the transformation of the institution into a universal and commercial bank after the merger of three mortgage banks (Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley). Santander UK has achieved leadership positions in different segments of retail banking. Its results improved markedly and the number of active clients grew to 16 million. Since 2012, Santander UK has increased its market share to 50% in SME business and has become the best provider of current accounts and the best of the big banks in terms of customer service, according to the independent publication Money Savings Expert. It has doubled the number of linked customers and, thanks to a strategy focused on linking and enhancing customer satisfaction, becoming a benchmark bank for companies in the UK, while maintaining a solid and profitable balance sheet.
Ana Botín is the only Spaniard included in international newswire Bloomberg’s list of the 50 Most Influential People. Bloomberg said Ana Botín “has transformed the bank in the UK, with a sharp increase in the number of customers and boost in profitability”.
The new chair of Banco Santander is also known for her interest in social responsibility activities and her support for entrepreneurs. She is a founder and vice chair of the Empresa y Crecimiento foundation, which finances small and medium enterprises in Latin America; and founder and chair of the Conocimiento y Desarrollo foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes universities’ involvement in economic and social development.
She also serves on the board of directors of Coca-Cola and is a Business Ambassador for the British government.
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