Ana Botín

COVID-19 has not been kind to European banks, including the one Botín took over from her late father six years ago. In July, Santander took a 12.6 billion euro ($14.9 billion) write-down on assets, blaming the pandemic’s effect on the economic outlook, and reported its first quarterly loss in the Spanish bank’s 163-year history. Botín, who recently warned about the consequences of a second and potentially third wave of coronavirus crisis, in March became the first European financial executive to take a pay cut in the face of the pandemic. She and Santander CEO José Antonio Álvarez donated half their total compensation, including bonuses, to a fund the bank set up to buy medical equipment and support coronavirus research.