Juan Roig, president of Mercadona

If someone put in the center of any city to ask passersby the name of the first business leader who came to mind, surely in their answers would appear names such as Amancio Ortega, Ana Botín, Florentino Pérez or Juan Roig.

A similar exercise is what the corporate reputation consultant Merco has been doing in her Corporate and leaders business monitorcreating an annual ranking of leaders and companies with a better reputation. In the 2025 edition, the president of Mercadona appears as the best valued businessman in Spain.

Juan Roig, the immutable

It cannot be said that Juan Roig was surprised to lead this ranking. The president of Mercadona has been in this position for seven years, since in 2019 the founder of Mercadona dismissed Pablo Isla, at that time CEO of Inditex.

This recognition of leadership is the result of the decisions that Roig has taken at the head of the supermarket chain that is transforming the Classic Supermarket Concepttowards a model in which Prima the profitabilitythe offer of New ways to consume its products and commitment to Mercadona digitalization.

Beyond the immovable Juan Roig, in the list of improved leaders valued we find a greater female presence than previous years. The second position is occupied by Ana Botín, president of Banco Santander, followed closely by Amancio Ortega that, although it is true that he does not occupy an executive position or inditex or in Pontegadeahis leadership continues to be one of The best valued.

Fourth, although a little further away, we find Marta Ortega, now leads with very good results The textile empire founded by his father. Close the Top 5 of this listing Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president of Iberdrola who asserts his two decades at the head of the energy to occupy this position.

Leaders and their companies

Although leadership influences largely the reputation of companies, there is not always a direct coincidence between the best valued leader and the best positioned company.

An example of this is found in the RANKING OF BEST VALUED COMPANIES In Spain in 2025. This list is not headed by the Mercadona de Juan Roig as expected, but is Inditex, led by Marta Ortega that occupies fourth place in terms of better valued leaders.

However, Mercadona occupies a very honorable second place on that list. Something similar happens with Banco Santander that, although it is true that its president occupies second place in leadership, we must go down to the ninth position of companies best valued in Spain to find Banco Santander.

Inditex has monopolized the first position of that list for almost a decade thanks to Your successful modelwith the only exception of 2022. In that year, Mercadona dismissed Ortega’s textile, to lose the first position again the following year.

The Top 10 of companies is completed by the Social Group Once, Repsol, Iberdrola, Coca-Cola, BBVA, CaixaBank and Mapfre.

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Image | Flikr (Informa Board), Gtres