Julio Castelo Matrán, former president of Mapfre, dies

has announced that Julio Castelo Matrán, honorary president of the company and promoter of its internationalization, has passed away this Tuesday in Madrid.

MAPFRE’s management team has conveyed its condolences and has highlighted that Castelo has been “a great benchmark for Mapfre” who made “a decisive contribution” to understanding the current global nature of the company.

“Julio Castelo has been an essential figure, personally and professionally, for the global Mapfre we know today. His values, his knowledge, his enormous capacity for work and his extraordinary generosity leave an unforgettable mark for all of us who were lucky enough to know him and work with him”, pointed out the president of Mapfre, Antonio Huertas.

Castelo was linked to Mapfre for more than 40 years, in which he held different responsibilities until he became president of the Mapfre System in 1990, taking over from Ignacio H. de Larramendi.

He joined the company in 1961 and was appointed CEO of Editorial Mapfre in 1970, the entity that was established to disseminate the insurance culture in Latin America and that promoted the beginnings of the company’s internationalization.

Among other milestones, it promoted the creation of the Personal Damage Assessment Scale, laid the foundations for the first bancassurance alliance in Spain and created the Insured’s Defense Commission. At Mapfre, he also promoted the creation and subsequent internationalization of Cesvimap, promoted the Mapfre Foundation Road Safety Institute and created the International Center for Executive Training and the Mapfre Code of Good Governance.

Under the presidency of Julio Castelo, which lasted until 2001, the intense internationalization of the company took place, which began in the mid-1980s. From his period are the acquisitions of, among others, the operations in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Peru, El Salvador and Venezuela. The first reinsurance office was also opened in London, as well as the entry into Ireland and Turkey with Mapfre Asistencia operations.