What does "old money" mean to entrepreneurs who are building their companies today? At its spring edition, held on May 16, 2026, at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, the Best CEO Awards made that question the theme of the evening, and recognized 97 business leaders from around the world.
For more than a century, the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, has been associated with a certain kind of wealth: quiet, established, and in no hurry to announce itself. The hotel opened in 1910. On Saturday, May 16, 2026, its main hall hosted a very different generation of guests. Most of them were founders and chief executives who built their businesses in the last ten or twenty years, many of them far from Madrid.
The event was the Tenth Edition of the Best CEO Awards (BCA), an international recognition program for business executives, founders and investors. Its theme was "The Old Money, in the New World."
An Idea Borrowed From Another Era
According to the organizers, the theme was not about inherited wealth. It was about the habits usually associated with it: discretion, patience, long-term thinking and a sense of responsibility toward what one builds. The question BCA put to its honorees was whether those habits still work in markets that move at the speed of today's, and the organizers state that the leaders recognized that evening are, in different ways, an answer to it.
That idea shaped the evening itself. The ceremony was black tie, the room was sold out, and more than 180 guests were seated across eighteen tables. The evening opened with a red carpet cocktail reception, continued with a gala dinner prepared by the hotel's culinary team, and closed with the awards ceremony, in which honorees were called to the stage category by category.
Who Was In The Room
The 97 honorees came from Europe, Latin America, the United States, the Middle East and Asia, and from a wide range of industries: professional services and consulting, health, real estate, hospitality, technology, manufacturing and more. Some lead companies with international operations; others run founder-led businesses that are still growing.
According to BCA, what they have in common is not the size of their companies but a record of results that could be documented and checked.
What It Takes To Be Recognized
Candidacies for the Best CEO Awards are evaluated against twelve dimensions defined in the program's Official Regulations, ranging from Business Performance and Corporate Financial Returns to Internationalization, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance, and Employee Training and Development. Performance is reviewed over a period of twelve to thirty-six months, and all documentation submitted must be authentic and verifiable. BCA states that no single criterion is decisive, and that each candidacy is judged as a whole.
The process is overseen by a Scientific Committee of independent professionals from the academic, financial, legal and business fields, who are bound by a conflict-of-interest protocol. The committee's composition remains confidential for the duration of each award cycle; according to BCA, this is to prevent any attempt to contact or influence its members. The regulations limit each award category to thirty finalists and exclude candidacies from jurisdictions under international sanctions.
Under the Official Regulations, application, nomination, desk review and finalist selection are free of charge. Honorees join the Best CEO Awards Honoree Program and may use the Honoree designation and the Badge of Excellence® in line with the program's published guidelines.
The Honorees
The leaders recognized at the Tenth Edition of the Best CEO Awards are:
Laura Svagzdyte, Matías Castrillón, Juan Jorge Valenzuela Valdez, Edward Salvatierra, Lola Owolabi, Virginia Terceros, Fabio Ostroviecki, Matthew Aizen, Claudio Totaro, Alessia Panizza, Bankim Chandra, Angeles De la Cerda, Elisabetta Sensi, Francisco Javier Toussaint Parrodi, Carmelo Santillan Ramos, Prince Lorenzi, David Flores, Miriam Schnyder, Maria Sztachel, Cesare De Stefano, Nabras Majedy, Mario Matías Sebely, Thomas Philip Brunney, Antonio Eduardo Botello Juárez, Gabriel Jimenez, Edwin Gomez, Ivan Cancino, Juan Camilo Vivas Ocampo, Andrea Palacios, Tino Pellizzeri, Mario Zamora, Piero Bardellini, Mahdi Rahman, Julisa Ludeña, Misha Emanuilov, Franco Luca, Enrique Arquer Badenas, Juan Carlos Fernandez Mercado, Mario Jaulin Acero, Ana Cristina Correa Cervera, Jose Luis Soto Belloso, Marinela Marku, Fernando Manjarin, Andrés Deya, Gafur Asani, Maria Paula Bello, Marcelo Tear, Flavio Quito Díaz, Mirko Costantino, Hussain Rahim, Inayat Kashif, Franco Salatino, Sri Rasamanickam, Carolina Mandil, Arnold Cabrera, Lorenzo Ferrari, Moises Navarro, Caine Wild, Jonathan Deuschle, Elena Bucur, Bola Benson, Gian Marco Montanari, Giuseppe Fisicaro, Fulvio Zangirolami, Juan Pablo Garcia, Judith Guerra, Camilo Suarez, David Santiago Rodriguez Davila, Weljanny Luciano, Juan Manuel (Papon) Ricciarelli, Diego Angel Restrepo, Marco Muñoz, Carlos Andrés Florez Paez, Radina Krasteva, Jesús Javier, Mary Jane Hug, Francesco Bergaglio, Luis de Miguel, Juan Fernando Santillan Hernandez, Luis Sambucety, Ignacio García Ramos, Voara Rheal, Simon Hofer, Marisa Nava, Juan Guillermo Jimenez, Samuel Turcu Georgescu, MC. Sandra Ramírez Monzón, Victoria Gagen, Sebastian Tyroller, Eduardo Rovito, Horacio Cacciatore, Alexandre Martinez, Pablo Sanchez, Francesc Vila Ferreres, Iryna Lazar, Alex Diana and Javier Salinas.
Madrid As A Home Base
The May ceremony confirmed the Mandarin Oriental Ritz as the program's address in Madrid, where BCA also holds its autumn edition. The Official Regulations covering eligibility, evaluation criteria, the Honoree Program and revocation of recognition are published in full at bestceoawards.com/rules.
About Best CEO Awards
Best CEO Awards is an international recognition program that identifies and recognizes chief executive officers, founders and business leaders based on business results, strategic vision and contribution to their industries. The BCA Scientific Committee evaluates candidacies from Europe, Latin America, the United States, the Middle East and Asia against twelve evaluation dimensions. For more information, visit bestceoawards.com.