Ignacio Bayón Mariné, President of the Board of Trustees of the Comillas-ICAI University Foundation, passes away

Ignacio Bayón Mariné, president of the Board of Trustees of the Comillas-ICAI University Foundation and member of the Board of Governors of Comillas Pontifical University, passed away last Friday, May 3, at the age of 80. Closely linked to Comillas, he participated actively in our university life, and was a regular at academic and institutional events.

Bayón has been president of the Comillas-ICAI University Foundation since 2002, and a trustee since 1997, following the merger by absorption of the two foundations that existed at the time, the ICAI Board of Trustees (absorbing foundation) and the Comillas Pontifical University Collaborating Foundation (absorbed foundation). Even before 1997, Bayón was a trustee of the Fundación Colaboradora de la Universidad Pontificia Comillas, a foundation that was set up in 1968 to help the Society of Jesus and the university to find and acquire the land in Cantoblanco and, subsequently, to build the existing buildings on that land.

Doctor of Law from the Universidad Complutense, he was Minister of Energy and Industry under Adolfo Suárez and held other public posts, such as Legal Advisor to the Council of State and Legal Advisor to the Spanish Parliament, and was Undersecretary of Housing in 1975.

He also had an extensive career in the business sector, serving on the boards of companies such as Nestlé, Canal Plus, Repsol, Telefónica, FCC, Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI) and Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), and was chairman of Realia. He was also a member of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy and in 2015 he assumed the presidency of the Board of Trustees of the Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción (FAD).

The university community and the members of the Comillas-ICAI University Foundation thank Ignacio Bayón Mariné for his good work and his valuable and generous dedication to the university.