Aragon remains orphaned of one of the entrepreneurs who brought the name of the Community to the world. César Alierta died this Wednesday in Zaragoza at the age of 78, following complications from a heart problem from which he suffered and for which he had been hospitalized for days.
Alierta never stopped showing his pride for his native Zaragoza, instilled in him by his father Cesáreo Alierta (who was mayor of the city and president of Real Zaragoza). There was no speech in which his unforgettable childhood memories in Villanúa did not appear, the small Jacetano town that named him its adopted son and that he always carried in his heart.
Graduated in Law from the University of Zaragoza, he left the Aragonese capital to obtain a master’s degree in Business Administration from Columbia University (New York) and start a successful career in which he always had at his side what would be his life partner for 50 years, Ana Cristina Placer, Law graduate, also from Zaragoza, died in 2015.
The professional path of César Alierta
The values and defense of his land accompanied him in all the positions he held in his long and fruitful professional career, from his first steps as general director of capital markets at Banco Urquijo in Madrid (1970-1985) to his subsequent responsibilities as president of Tabacalera (1996-2000) and then in the highest position of Telefónica, a company he led for 16 years until 2016 when he handed over the baton to José María Álvarez Pallete. However, he does not abandon his connection with the company, whose foundation he presided over for several years.
His professional career has taken him far, but he has always had Aragón very close to him. He regularly went to Zaragoza, both to promote projects and participate in company events, and to share family moments and meetings with his friends. Agustín Lueña, Luis Ros and José Luis de Jaime.
The real Zaragoza, one of César Alierta’s passions
Passionate about football and involved with Real Zaragoza, He did not want to deny his support to the club in the most difficult moments.
Master of entrepreneurs, he made the companies he managed great, without ever abandoning that humanistic and pedagogical aspect of teaching what he knew to young people and university students, which led him to chair the Social Council of the National University of Distance Education in Spain and be part of the Supervisory Board of Columbia Business School.
His ability to give and not give up made him deserving of the most important awards on both sides of the Atlantic, but what he was most grateful for was having been a prophet in his land. The Global Spanish Businessman Award in 2005 – awarded by the Spanish-United States Chamber of Commerce – was in recognition of his managerial career developed at Telefónica, which allowed the Telefónica Group to enter the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 stock index. NY. A year later he received the Basilio Paraíso Award from the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce and the 2006 Aragón Medal, the highest recognition awarded by the Regional Council on 23 April.
In 2010, the prestigious Thomson Extel Survey chose him as the best executive president in Spain. And that same year his hometown awarded him the Gold Medal. Collecting the award at the Town Hall of Zaragoza, César Alierta recalled once again, as he always did, that Aragón has always been his reference, wherever he was. Because, in his words, the walk through Central Park reminded him of the Parque Grande in Zaragoza and the Río de la Plata from his stays in Latin America transported him to the Galacho del Ebro.
It was also 2010 when Alierta went to New York in June to receive the Gold Medal of the America Society in recognition of his important contribution to the growth and development of Latin America. Two years after, the HERALDO Prize for Human Values and Knowledge recognized his commitment to the region.
A few days after leaving the presidency of Telefónica, in July 2016, he received the Aragón Entrepreneur Award from the CEOE, a recognition received with the support of his family and around 600 representatives from the world of politics, business and finance. Once again, an emotional Alierta showcased the region to him, the “spectacular potential of this land for its geostrategic position” and its capacity as a test bed “since the product that works in Aragon works all over the world “.
2024-01-10 14:36:00
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