Alfredo Sáenz Abad
Spanish businessman
Alfredo Sáenz Abad (born 21 November 1942) is a Spanish businessman who was the CEO and vice-chairman of the Spanish bank Santander Group, the largest bank in the Eurozone and one of the largest banks in the world in terms of market capitalisation. He obtained his degree in law from the University of Valladolid, and in Economics from the Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao.
Career
Sáenz started his career as an executive manager of Tubacex S.A. (1965–1980). After that, he was deputy general manager for Banco de Vizcaya (1981–1983); CEO and chairman for Banca Catalana (1983–1988); CEO and chairman for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (1988–1993); chairman for Banco Español de Crédito (1993–2002), and first deputy chairman for Inmobiliaria Urbis S.A. (1998–2002)
Sáenz joined Banco Santander in 1994 as a board member. From 2002 until 2013 he was vice chairman and CEO. He resigned as CEO on 29 April 2013, before the Bank of Spain had to make a ruling on the court case from 1994.
During 2012, Alfredo Sáenz was chosen second best CEO in European Banking. That year, during his tenure as CEO, Banco Santander was named 'Best Bank in the world' by the business magazine Euromoney.
Sáenz retired from Banco Santander in 2013. His lump-sum pension payout was reported to be €88 million. The sizeable payout followed his 19-year career with the bank, which saw its global expansion and the quadrupling of its assets to €1.25 trillion.
“Alfredo Sáenz Abad” enters the record as spanish businessman. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alfredo, Sáenz and Abad can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q554691. VIAF identifies the subject as 207161354. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1965, 1980 and 1981.
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