Steering changes at Banco Santander. Mexican Hector Grissitaking on the role of the entity’s new CEO globally on January 1, will place Ángel Rivera Congosto (Madrid, 1966) in charge of the bank in Spain in February.

Movement It has been interpreted, first of all, as one of Grisi’s first attempts to surround himself with people he trusts. Indeed, there are many such things. Grisi, who coincided with Rivera when he was vice president of commercial and retail banking at Banco Santander México (between 2017 and 2020), knew that running Santander in Spain was nothing. First of all, it is the country where the entity was born. But Spain is far more Santander than distant memories of its glorious past. It is the fourth country in the group in terms of benefits, with 1.104 million euros, only behind 2.027 million in Brazil, 1.489 in the US and 1.104 in the UK, according to data from the first nine months of 2022.

Grisi was impressed by the work of a man, Rivera, who, as head of commercial banking in Spain, insisted on getting to know his big clients one by one to understand their needs, while traveling the country branch by branch. to also find out what they need. Less fancy users, a more or less repetitive procedure in Mexico. So he had quite a bit of hesitation when it came to thinking of a replacement António Simões. The Portuguese would retain his function as European regional chief, meaning Rivera would report directly to him, but he would end the long-standing custom of Santander, also having to be headed by an area’s regional director. a state that forms part of the territory it governs. Simões left Rivera in charge of Spain in exchange for having more time to analyze the full picture of the Old Continent.

Those who know Santander Spain’s next CEO say that one of the first things that caught his eye was his elegant outfit. Married, father of three, lover of the sea and sailing, travel, skiing, handball (he is a follower of the strong share that Atlético de Madrid has in this sport) and motorbikes (he can proudly ride two Harley-Davidsons), Rivera is always up to date. In fact, she understands good looks a bit like a business: both are adaptive endeavors in her eyes.

So, while he is seen wearing the classic suit and tie (red is, of course, the corporate color) at corporate events, he also occasionally omits these accessories to give his image a closer look in an interview.

The desire to break the distance that separated him from his interlocutors made Rivera, commented his entourage, a rare bird in the banking world. So did the commercial banking expert soon, a quality that has not gone unnoticed by Grisi. Another bank CEO said of Rivera that he is a very human person in doing business, that he is close and simple. Moreover, those who have dealt with him over the years also highlight his love for banking: he loves his profession.

team change

And that, on paper, Rivera is a rookie. Drawn by his passion for travel, he studied Business and Tourism Administration at the Official Tourism School in the late eighties. Who would have told him then – he once commented between laughs – that he was going to make a career in banking. From there he went straight to Banco Popular, where was Luis Valls, the entity’s visionary president between 1972 and 2004. Given Rivera’s mastery of languages, particularly English, stemming from his time as a promising Tourism student, Valls immediately appointed him chief of staff to the presidency and, basically, he was telling her to travel. After participating in a number of pioneering and intensive training programs in the US hosted by different banks, Rivera fell in love with the world he came to almost by chance.

That was the start of a career at Banco Popular that spanned over two decades. In it, Rivera goes through almost all areas of the entity. Finally, in 2013 Banco Popular appointed Francisco Gómez Martín as its new CEO, a position many pundits think would have gone to either Rivera or Jacobo González-Robatto.

Feeling since then that Popular didn’t have much material to cut, Rivera began to pay more attention to the siren songs that Santander had been sounding for years. He wasn’t her only suitor, as was reported at the time Five days, there is speculation that he could replace Rodrigo Rato himself at the helm of Bankia. Eventually, despite his personal friendship with Ángel Ron, president of Popular at the time, he took the leap to seek more room to grow. It was in the same 2013: after arriving in Santander and working for several years as branch network distribution director, a new position created after the integration of Banesto and Banif, in 2015 was appointed vice president of retail and commercial banking, a position he held until in 2017 he started his adventure in Mexico.

His meteoric rise in the Botín family group was summed up by Grisi himself in 2020, in a statement announcing Rivera’s return to Spain: “Ángel has always displayed great enthusiasm and professionalism in everything he does, characteristics he has left us with his entire team and which will surely enable us to proceed with a successful outcome.”

It was just a remark you would immediately address to a man who, Grisi knew, was much more than an obedient underling. Fate brought them back together.