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Juan Villalonga Navarro (born April 8, 1953) is a Spanish businessman. He was a partner at
McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
in the 1980s, CEO for
Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 1988 ...
and
Bankers Trust Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpor ...
in Spain in the early 1990s, and CEO of
Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...
from 1996 to 2000. In 2010, ''
Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...
'' named Villalonga one of the world's top 100 CEOs.


Early life, education

Juan Villalonga is a native of
Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and was born on April 8, 1953. He comes from an established Spanish family deeply entrenched in the economics and politics of the country. His paternal family owned the Tramway and Railway Company of Valencia from CTFV to 1917. His great uncle, Ignacio Villalonga, was Governor of
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
when
Generalitat Generalitat (, literally in English 'Generality') is the name of two major medieval and early modern political institutions and their modern-day analogues in Kingdom of Spain. The ancient Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Valencia were ...
was suspended in 1935. His great uncle was also chairman for one of Spain's largest banks,
Banco Central Banco Central Hispano was a Spanish bank. In 1999 it was merged with Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santande ...
(1943–1970), and was an outspoken critic of
Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
. Villalonga attended school at the Colegio Nuestra Senora del Pilar in Madrid. There, he became friends with
José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the Fre ...
, who would serve as
Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of 1978 and it was first regula ...
from 1996 to 2004. In 1970 Villalonga began attending his great uncle's alma mater, the
University of Deusto The University of Deusto ( es, Universidad de Deusto; eu, Deustuko Unibertsitatea) is a Spanish private university owned by the Society of Jesus, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, and the Deusto Business School branch in Madrid. The Un ...
, to earn a degree in law. He graduated in 1975. While undertaking an MBA at the
IESE IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. Founded in 1958 in Barcelona where its main campus is located,López, T. & Pampliega, J“La fundación del IESE (1956–1958)” Universidad de Navarra, Biblioteca ...
in
Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
University of Navarre , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...
from 1975 to 1977, he completed his military service, rising to the rank of Alferez (Second Lieutenant) (1974–1975).


Career

For the next 18 years Villalonga worked in the financial markets, starting in New York with J.P. Morgan’s credit analyst team. In this role, he evaluated the credit worthiness of companies and made quantitative analysis and credit projections. In 1979, he was promoted to Account Officer and assigned to Madrid. He joined
McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
in 1980 and worked as a partner across the United States, Portugal, Brazil, Italy and Spain. During this period, he serviced McKinsey clients such as
Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centr ...
, which is ranked as the largest bank in the Eurozone. He opened McKinsey’s
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
office in 1987. He subsequently became CEO for
Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 1988 ...
, Spain and
Bankers Trust Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpor ...
in Spain.


Telefónica

In 1996, Villalonga was appointed chief executive officer of
Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...
, proposed by shareholders Argentaria, Banco Bilbao,
La Caixa La Caixa, also known as the "La Caixa" Foundation ( es, Fundación ”la Caixa”), is a not-for-profit banking foundation based in Catalonia. Originally a savings bank (''caja''), it reorganized in the 2000s and 2010s: Its commercial assets are ...
, and with endorsement of the Spanish Premier,
Jose Maria Aznar Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. *Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean ...
. In four years under his leadership, Telefónica’s market capitalization increased by $127 billion, securing the company's leadership position in Spain and turning Telefónica into an international telecommunications power. He also developed a successful model for acquisitions where transactions were made in stock. In 1997, the European telecommunications market was liberalized, and Telefónica ceased to have a monopoly in Spain. Villalonga used the event to expand the company beyond Spain into other Spanish-speaking markets. In 1997, he entered the company into pre-
BRIC BRIC is a grouping acronym referring to the developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which are identified as rising economic powers. It is typically rendered as "the BRIC," "the BRIC countries," "the BRIC economies," or alte ...
Brazil. In 1998, Villalonga launched Telefónica Interactiva (also known as
Terra Networks Terra is a Spanish Internet multinational company owned by Telefónica, with headquarters in Spain and offices in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the United States and Peru. Part of Telefónica Group (the former Spanish public telephone monop ...
), Telefónica’s Internet portal. He aggressively acquired several local start-ups in Spain and the main Latin American markets, turning Terra into a major internet company. These acquisitions included Ole (Spain), Zaz (Brazil), Infosel (Mexico), Gauchonet y Donde (Argentina) and Chevere (Venezuela). In November 1999, Terra had a high-profile
IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in the U.S. and Spain, and its shares rose from the initial price of €11.81 to €157.65 within three months. He then had Telefónica purchase the American Internet search company,
Lycos Lycos, Inc., is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company is based in Walth ...
, creating one of the world’s largest Internet companies. It opened the U.S. market of 30 million Spanish speakers to Terra and provided access to parts of the world where Telefónica did not yet have a foothold, such as Asia. The purchase for $12.5 billion in stock in May 2000 created a new company known as Terra Lycos Inc., which had a pro-forma revenue of approximately $500 million, an estimated 50 million new users, and 175 million page views per day. In June 2000, Villalonga strengthened the international standing of Telefónica’s Spanish Group in an equity swap known as "Operation Verónica." He had Telefónica buy out minority shareholders in its Latin American subsidiaries: Telefónica de Argentina,
Telesp Telesp - Telecomunicações de São Paulo S.A. was the telephony operator of the Telebrás system in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, successor to the ''Companhia Telefônica Brasileira (CTB)'', later incorporating the ''Companhia de Telecomun ...
in Brazil, Telefónica del Perú, and Tele Sudeste. He also reorganized the company along product rather than geographical lines. During the same period, Telefónica acquired Dutch entertainment giant
Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...
for €5.5 billion in stock. In June 2000, the Madrid daily '' El Mundo'' claimed that Villalonga had been involved in
insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...
. Amid these rumors and pressure from the Spanish government, Villalonga resigned as chairman of Telefónica in July 2000. In August 2000, the Spanish stock market commission, the
Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores The National Securities Market Commission () (often abbreviated as CNMV) is the Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain. It is an independent agency that falls under the Ministry of ...
(CNMV), cleared Villalonga of insider trading charges.


Recent career

Villalonga served as a board member of the Espirito Santo Financial Group until September 2011. He is a board member of
Axiata Axiata Group Berhad, commonly known as Axiata, formerly known as TM International Berhad, is a Malaysian multinational telecommunications conglomerate with extensive operations in Asia. The group Axiata's primary business is in investment h ...
, and is a director of the technology company Idea. In 2010, ''
Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...
'' named Villalonga one of the Best-Performing CEO’s in the World.


Personal life

He is married to photographer Vanessa von Zitzewitz.''Hola'': Juna Vilalonga
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References


External links


Black Lake VenturesIdea.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villalonga, Juan Living people Spanish football chairmen and investors Valencia CF 1953 births Directors of Telefónica People named in the Paradise Papers