Barcelona businessman Juan Echevarria Puig has died in Barcelona at the age of 101. When he was an important actor in the automotive industry in Spain, where he led Nissan Motor Iberica for several decades, he was characterized by persistent commercial concerns, which could only be compared with his ideological and conservative convictions: he is an avowed factionist who acted as a defender and promoter of the personality of José Antonio Primo de Rivera. He has five children, one of whom, Álvaro, is Telefónica’s top executive and Marc Murtra’s most trusted person. Another of his greats, Alejandro, is part of Joan Laporta’s team of loyal collaborators in the Barcelona management. Laporta himself had a paternal relationship with Juan Echevarria, during his marriage to his daughter Constanza.
To justify his longevity and activity, Juan Echevarria assumed good genes and a disciplined physical routine. A good reader, he confessed his love for Luis Cernuda and Juan Ramón Jiménez. He holds a Doctorate in Law from the University of Barcelona, a graduate in Political Science from the University of Madrid, a graduate in Postgraduate Business Studies from the Graduate Institute of the University of Navarra, and a graduate in Industrial Relations from the University of Massachusetts (USA).
Echevarría has been closely associated for decades with the university world, holding chairs of sociology at the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of the University of Barcelona, as founder and director of that university’s San Jorge Mayor’s College, and as the first president of the Social Council of the Pompeu Fabra University.
He headed Nissan in Spain in the 20th century, the electric company Fixa (a subsidiary of Endesa in Catalonia) in the 1990s, and then the cable company Minta until 2000. In the political arena, Echevarría formed part of the First Popular Alliance (AP) of Catalonia in the 1970s, and in the 1980 independent elections he was part of the AP lists.
In 2004, he assumed the presidency of Mutua Universal, of which he had been a member of the board of directors since 1987, a position that decisively marked the leap from entity to modernity. In the statement announcing the business decision, the company explained that during his time at the helm of Mutua Universal, “Echevarría sought to restore and preserve the historical values of mutuality, as well as through a constant search for excellence and good corporate governance.”
Foment del Tribal expressed his regret at the death of Echevarria Puig, whom he described as “a man of dialogue and knowledge.”
Throughout his career, Echevarria was distinguished by numerous decorations and recognitions, such as the Order of the Cisneros Order, the Postal Order of Merit (1976), the Order of Civil Merit (2003), the Order of the Plata de la Guardia Civil, the Order of Military Merit (2017), the Order of the City of Barcelona, and the Order of Military Merit (2017). Tesoro Sagrado Awarded by the Emperor of Japan (1995). Also, the Creu de Sant Jordi de la Generalitat (1998), the Guardó d’honor de la Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona (1997), or the Medal of Honor of the Trayecttoria Empresarial de Foment del Treball (2023).