Ana Patricia Botin-Sanz de Sautuola O'Shea is a Spanish banker who has served as the Executive Chairman of Santander Group since 2014. She stepped into the leadership role when her father, Emilio, died suddenly.
Botin is the fourth generation of the Botin family to hold this position. Today, Santander Group is one of the most profitable and efficient banks in the world, serving over 142 million customers across Europe and the Americas with a top three ranking for customers satisfaction in most of its markets.
Botin was born in 1960 in Santander, Spain the daughter of Spanish banker Emilio Botin, who was the executive chairman of Spain’s Grupo Santander at the time. After high school, she studied economics at Bryn Mawr College. Botin then worked at JP Morgan in the United States from 1981 to 1988 before returning to Spain to work for Santander Group.
In 1997, Botin was involved with the bank’s $495 million acquisition of a 51% stake in Banco Osorno y La Union, the largest bank in Chile. Only five years later, she was made the executive chairman of the Spanish bank, Banesto, which was commended as the Best Bank in Spain by Euromoney for three consecutive years during that period.
By 2010, Botin had succeeded António Horta Osório as chief executive of Santander UK. During her role as CEO of Santander UK, she led the transformation of three former building societies into one of Britain’s most innovative banks.
Botin was appointed a director of the Coca-Cola Company in 2013 where she served before stepping into her current position. Since then, she has led a cultural, commercial and technological transformation of the Group, focused on boosting customer trust and loyalty. She has championed financial technology and focused on entrepreneurs, backing small enterprise and women-owned businesses.
Botin describes herself as “a lover of nature, sports, music, reading, and champion of inclusive growth, education for all.” She was ranked the third most powerful woman in the UK in 2013 by “Woman's Hour” on BBC Radio 4 and Forbes ranked her the 8th most powerful woman in the world in 2017, 2019, and 2020.