Alberto Cortina

Alberto Cortina de Alcocer (born 20 January 1947) is a Spanish billionaire businessman. Through his holding Percacer, he is co-owner, with his cousin Alberto Alcocer, of Alcor Holding, the owner of 12.5% of Grupo ACS, the biggest construction company in the world by sales with 2014 revenues of US$50b, and of 21% of Ence, the largest paper pulp and biomass energy company in Europe. He has appeared several years in Forbes List of Billionaires with US$1.4 billion. Biography Cortina studied law at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His life has run parallel to that of his cousin Alberto Alcocer. In Spain both cousins are commonly referred to as "The Albertos", as they both married two sisters and ran their wives business empire for 20 years. His father Pedro Cortina Mauri, originally from Catalonia, was foreign minister during the Francoist dictatorship. His maternal grandfather Alberto Alcocer y Ribacoba, originally from Biscay, was Mayor of Madrid in the 1920s and again in the 1930s. In 1969 he married Alicia Koplowitz. After that, he and his cousin started working for Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, the company founded by Alicia's father. By the year 1976 he became CEO of the company. Driven by the talent of Cortina and Alcocer, and through a never before tried diversification from its core building business into other sectors, the company grew greatly in value over a period of 18 years. This growth was accomplished in spite of the Spanish crisis that took place between the years of 1973 and 1985. The company that was having a turnover of 1,000 million pesetas when Alberto joined it, became a diversified group of over 30 companies, with a total turnover of close to 300,000 million pesetas and a valuation of US$3b.