Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, 1st Marquess of Villar Mir (30 September 1931 – 6 July 2024) was a Spanish billionaire businessman, politician, and the chairman and CEO of the construction company

Obrascón Huarte Lain Obrascón Huarte Lain, S.A. (); branded as OHLA Progress Enablers since July 2021, is a Spanish multinational construction and civil engineering company. The company is involved in infrastructure and commercial property construction, homebuildin ...

Early life

Villar Mir was born in Madrid on 30 September 1931. He earned a degree in industrial organisation, and a doctorate in civil engineering.

Career

From December 1975 to July 1976, Villar Mir was the Minister of Economy and Finance. In 1976, he was

Third Deputy Prime Minister of Spain The third deputy prime minister of Spain, officially the Third Vice President of the Government of Spain (), is a senior member of the Government of Spain. The office is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minist ...

for about six months, as a member of the

Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista The Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (; FET y de las JONS), frequently shortened to just "FET", was the sole legal party of the Francoist regime in Spain. It was created by General Francisco ...

party, under Prime Minister

Carlos Arias Navarro Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquess of Arias Navarro (11 December 1908 – 27 November 1989) was the Prime Minister of Spain during the final years of the Francoist dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy. Arias ...

fell into financial difficulties in the late 1980s, however, and was bought from

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

for one penny in 1987 by Villar Mir, who remained the company's chairman until his death. Villar Mir turned around the firm's fortunes, and it listed on the

Bolsa de Madrid (; Madrid Stock Exchange) is the largest and most international of Spain's four regional stock exchanges (the others are located in Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao) that trade shares and convertible bonds and fixed income securities, and both g ...

in 1991. Villar Mir had been a non-executive director of Santander from 2013.

Personal life and death

Villar Mir was married with three children and lived in Madrid, Spain. He died in Madrid on 6 July 2024, at the age of 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villar Mir, Juan-Miguel 1931 births 2024 deaths Deputy prime ministers of Spain Economy and finance ministers of Spain Politicians from Madrid Businesspeople from Madrid People's Alliance (Spain) politicians Spanish billionaires 20th-century Spanish businesspeople 21st-century Spanish businesspeople Marquesses of Spain