Businessman Fernando Fernandez Tapias has died at the age of 84, as announced by Carlos Herrera this Wednesday, October 25. He was president of the Madrid Business Confederation-CEOE between 1985 and 2002 and first vice president of the Real Madrid Football Club. Nuria Gonzalez (51), his widow, is currently mourning her loss.
González is the woman who has been by Tapias’ side in the worst moments of his life. The last few years have been marked by her health problems, which have been constant and have been mainly related to coronary problems. The businessman had implanted more than half a dozen stents (vascular endoprostheses).
But if there is something that he could never recover from, it was the sad loss of his son Bosco, who disappeared in 2010 at the age of 40 while diving. His body was not found until two years later. It was in 2012 when a Civil Guard diver extracted the remains of the corpse from the bottom of the Playa Chica cave (Lanzarote). Very close to his offspring, Fernández-Tapias never got over the loss of the young man, with whom he had a very special relationship.
Fefé, as he was popularly known, had been married to Nuria González since 2002 and with her he had two children, Ivan (20) y Alma (16), who have been by his side until the last moment watching their father’s light go out.
Founder of the naval companies Amura SA and Roda SA, of Fernández-Tapias SA, of Conservas Peña SA and Conservas Portonovo SA, of the maritime section of Bureau Veritas SAF or Viajes Sandra’s SA among other companies, Fernández Tapias also stood out as president of the Madrid Business Confederation-CEOE between 1985 and 2002.
His great passion was Real Madrid, a club in which he held the position of first vice president and to which he dedicated part of his energy and free time, since whenever his busy schedule allowed it he would occupy his place in the Santiago box. Bernabeu and traveled with the team supporting them in each and every one of their games.
The last controversy that overshadowed his life was his legal battle against his older children: Fernando, Borja, Sandra, Íñigo y Juan Carlos -the result of his first marriage to Victoria Riva de Luna- who sued him in 2021 to legally incapacitate him and thus challenge the transfer of powers that he had begun months before in his business conglomerate. The court agreed with him and dismissed the lawsuit considering that the shipowner continued to have full use of his powers.