Born in 1924 in the Biscayan town of Plencia, in a family with a long tradition of seafarers and businessmen, he received his doctorate in Naval Engineering from the Special School of Naval Engineers in Madrid, and completed his training with a Master's Degree for senior managers from business, in its first promotion, at IESE (University of Navarra). Married to María Luz Gomendio, he is the father of six children. One of them, Jorge Sendagorta, is president of Sener and of the Basque Businessmen's Circle.

Business trajectory

Enrique Sendagorta has been a central figure in the industrial and technological development of the Basque Country and Spain since 1956 when he founded, together with his brother José Manuel, the naval engineering company SENER, business . Initially as a naval group , SENER eventually became one of the largest industrial groups in Spain and the world, working for important sectors such as energy, telecommunications, aerospace and infrastructures. committee Sendagorta was also the founder and first Executive Chairman of Petronor in 1968, and was Managing Director of Banco de Vizcaya and Vice-Chairman of its Board of Directors and Director of BBV, until its merger with Argentaria in the late nineties. Throughout his more than 60 years of professional degree program , he was also Director General of Foreign Trade, board member of the committee of the board Nuclear, and Director and Director General of the Spanish Shipbuilding Society.

In recognition of his professional career, he was awarded, among others, the following distinctions: award Kingdom of Spain to the Entrepreneurial Career (2014), Medal of Honorary Member of the high school of the Engineering of Spain (2014), award National to the Innovative Career of the Ministry of Science and Innovation (2011), award Ingenia from the School of Engineers of Bilbao (2004), award from the association of Naval Engineers for the best professional and social career (1999), Grand Cross of Naval Merit (Spain, 1965), Verdienstkreutz mit Stern (Germany, 1963) and Cruzeiro do Sul (Brazil, 1962).

See here some personal and professional profiles published in the media on the occasion of his death.

Enrique de Sendagorta and the high school

Enrique Sendagorta was linked to business y Humanismo from its origins, and succeeded Luis Mª de Ybarra y Oriol as President of high school in 1996. During his presidency, between 1996 and 2011, the activities of business y Humanismo grew and expanded with the launching of a Master's Degree and a doctorate in Governance and Culture of Organizations, in addition to its now traditional conference, seminars and publications. D. Enrique, as he was known at high school, always showed in all these activities the passion, interest and support that so many of his ventures in the world of business also received. In 2011, when he was named Honorary President of high school -position which he held until his death - he was given an Academic Tribute in Pamplona, which also celebrated the 25th anniversary of high school. In that tribute, Alejandro Llano described Enrique de Sendagorta's contribution to high school as follows: "There are already many people and institutions to whom business y Humanismo, and those of us who have worked at high school , owe our recognition and gratitude: academics and businessmen who have generously placed their knowledge and energy at the service of research and the transmission of knowledge about the human and social side of business corporations. Among them, and in a very prominent place, the rich professional and human personality of Mr. Enrique de Sendagorta stands out as a focus of clarity".

Jaume Aurell, current Director of high school, remembers with these words the constant support of Enrique Sendagorta to his activities: "When I joined the direction of high school, Enrique Sendagorta was already its Honorary President and, therefore, I no longer had the responsibility of his direct impulse. However, I was very impressed by the intensity with which he followed the regular meetings of the board of trustees of high school, the attention with which he paid to the comments of the academics who were part of board of trustees and, in final, his passion for promoting such a fruitful (but complex to achieve) dialogue between intellectuals and businessmen. None of us who were at those meetings doubted that we were before an exceptional person and businessman, but at the same time each time he managed to surprise us with his attitude of the one who is always learning, with a genuine listening and welcoming of the ideas of others, no matter how young and inexperienced we were."

See here other testimonies from the book that was published on the occasion of the Tribute.

The ideas and humanism of Enrique de Sendagorta

Not only with his constant support, but also with his ideas and reflections, Enrique de Sendagorta contributed to shape the spirit and thought that have encouraged the activities of high school in the last two decades. His are the following words, pronounced in the aforementioned 2011 Homage: "In our society, the supreme object is money, and humanism, that is, the consideration of the dignity of every man as a creature of God, is rather weakening. It is not accepted, nor is it seen as an obligatory premise, that economic progress should be linked to the integral human and social development ; the former is pursued, but in the majority of enterprises the perfection of man in his totality is not striven for. We forget that progress must be based on two closely linked categories: reason and freedom. The first is justice, is goodness, is the power of the good and for the good, and the second is man's path to his fullness. Thus, the progress that brings a business is both the increase of wealth and the improvement of men, who must be able to advance to their more universal and more good plenary session of the Executive Council".

From his partnership with business y Humanismo we have some texts that are worth remembering at this time, and that are living testimony of his humanist thinking and his commitment to society.

• "Philosophy, culture and art in the entrepreneur", Revista business y Humanismo, Vol. I, No. 2/99, pp. 275-289.

• "Humanism and business leadership," Journal business and Humanism, Vol. XI, 2/08, pp. 11-32.

• "La responsabilidad social del empresario", Cuadernos business y Humanismo, No. 3, 1988.

• "The Servant-Free Entrepreneur," Cuadernos business y Humanismo, No. 72, 1998.

• "Freedom and equality," New Trends, No. 94, 2015, pp. 4-10.

As a good humanist, Enrique de Sendagorta was a person of great sensitivity, with an extraordinary culture and passion for painting, history, literature and, particularly, for music. That is why, in addition to his writings on the business, he also cultivated other interests, which were captured in books such as Indomables del mar (2014), La mujer sin sombra: Una narración del cuento de Hugo von Hofmannsthal (2009), ¡Aquí estamos!: Recuerdos autobiográficos de mi familia y de mis tiempos (2008), Europa entre dos luces. ¿Declive o resurgimiento? (2007), El afecto a la business (2005).

Image Gallery (Enrique de Sendagorta and the high school)