Being an engineer was almost a predestination in a family like the trailgortaone of the Basque clans from Neguri, founders of Sener engineering in 1956. But Andres Sendagorta McDonellthe new president of the Family Business Institute (IEF), ratified by the assembly of this ‘lobby’ on the 11th, was attracted not only to the land but especially to the sea and the air and forged a brilliant military career before of presiding over the family firm.
Born in Madrid in 1958, although he considers himself to be from Bilbao -it is already known that “those from Bilbao are born where they want”-, he graduated from the Naval Military School of the Navy as a second lieutenant of the General Higher Scale Corps in 1985. Within his military career, he has been an anti-submarine warfare officer on the ‘Baleares’ frigate, a ship’s lieutenant and a naval pilot of combat jets with aircraft carrier qualification (US Navy and Spanish Navy). He has also held the positions of Harrier jet pilot at the Rota Naval Base and the Principe de Asturias aircraft carrier; Chief of Operations and Second Commander; and Lieutenant Commander of the upper echelon of the General Corps of the Navy. Thanks to all this, in 2009 he received the Grand Cross of Naval Merit, with a white badge from the hands of the then king John Charles I.
“As an officer of the Navy, I have been given the opportunity to assume responsibility from quite young, although going through a demanding training period,” he explained in an interview reported by the economic newspaper ‘Cinco Días’. The conclusion: “Professionally I could not have done what I have done if I had not been a Navy officer and a fighter pilot.” And it is that, in his opinion, people are led in a squad and in a company, the same, although the activity is different.
As a member of a business saga, he has recorded in blood and fire that the company’s ultimate reason for being “is to serve society.” And to achieve this you have to “be good at what you do, because otherwise you’re a speculator; and make money doing it because if not, you’re not a company.”
He recalled those premises that he learned from his uncle and his father, the founders of Sener, during the speech he gave before the IEF assembly, which ratified him as president in substitution of Marc Puigwho exhausted his term. trailgorta combines military characteristics with a brilliant career; and as manager of a leading company. From the Navy he learned to “value people for what they are and not for what they have.”
In the civil sphere, he has a diploma in general management from IESE, a member of the governing council of the Institute of Stock Market Studies and president, since 2019, of the Basque Family Business Association (Aefame).
His professional relationship with the family company, of which he is a shareholder, was forged first as a director and 10 years later, in 1999, as vice president of the engineering group. In 2018 he was appointed president of the company’s Foundation and in 2020, president of the group, after taking over from his cousin, Jorge Sendagorta, who is now the president of Hinor. At that time, at the same time, his nephew and son of the previous president, Jorge Sendagorta Cudoswas appointed CEO.
With all this, the distribution of family branches of this engineering group founded in 1956 by Henry of Sendagortawho was joined four years later by his brother Jose Manuelthe father of the current president.
As is required in this family business, to access it and hold a position, extensive experience is required.
Related news
Andres Sendagorta He has six children, between twenty and thirty-nine grandchildren. And he introduced in his speech when he became president of the IEF a message with a special sensitivity on an “essential” issue: that family businesses promote “initiatives that promote and facilitate the reconciliation between work and family life”. And it is that, in his opinion, if something characterizes this type of company it is the effort “to put people at the center”.
trailgorta insisted before the assembly on asking the partners of this elite of around a hundred companies -the most important in the country, which contribute 70% of private employment and 60% of GDP- that “conciliation policies be at the forefront” of business priorities. The clear and forceful message of the new captain -and never better said- of the companies controlled by relatives.
no privileges
“We don’t want favors or privileges. What we ask is that we be taken into account and be allowed to compete in the world without burdens or disadvantages.” That was one of Andrés Sendagorta’s messages during the speech he gave at the IEF assembly that ratified him as president. He called for “everyone, businessmen, employees, civil society, town councils, regional governments and the central government” to unite “in a shared effort: to make possible the growth, progress and continuity of family businesses as a sign and expression of progress, structure and national prosperity”.