TESTIMONIALS
Luis Herrero
Short version (2 min.)
“Luis Valls always knew that he was dealing with people, not customers, with their concerns and needs.”
Journalists were one of the groups Luis Valls dedicated the most time and attention to. Luis Herrero, a veteran and well-known journalist who has worked with media outlets such as Cadena COPE, Televisión Española, and currently EsRadio, had the fortune of interacting numerous times with the president of Banco Popular, whom he says “was a very respected and thoughtful person.” The journalist from Castellón believes that a banking vocation was not Valls’ first choice; instead, it was books and the intellectual world, following in his father’s footsteps.
In his testimony, Herrero asserts that Valls was “deeply polite, very patient, and a great listener” while describing him as an austere person “who always dressed the same.”
Doing a good job, helping others, and staying unnoticed were part of the keys to understanding Luis Valls. Luis Herrero states, “he broke the mold, managed differently, in an unrepeatable way.”
He dedicated much time to people, especially those who needed his help, and the famous journalist highlighted that “he was a great strategist.” According to him, Luis Valls admitted on more than one occasion that one of the books he read most often was “The Art of War by Sun Tzu.”
Valls instilled in his teams the principle of dealing with people with their worries, concerns, and needs, not with customers, which is common today but was undoubtedly very innovative in the 1970s and 1980s.
Not fond of parties and events, Luis Valls was “very interested in everything happening around him; the world did not end at the bank for him.” His brother Javier was an excellent supporter of representation duties.
Herrero recalls the banker’s habit of showing up unannounced at clients’ and bank branches, saying, “That was Valls in his purest form.”
His testimony concludes with a reference to the foundations, asserting that Valls’ way of understanding charity was to help by giving people opportunities, mainly through student loans, so that they could receive more education. Luis Herrero claims that Valls “earned a fortune, but he gave it all away.”