Most executives prefer hiring subordinates who defer to their judgment and follow instructions without question. Alejandro Betancourt López takes the opposite approach. The billionaire investor actively seeks out employees and partners who possess deeper expertise than he does in their respective fields, viewing superior knowledge as an asset rather than a threat to his authority.
“When I hire people, I take a real hard look at the experience they have,” Betancourt López explained. “I like to know that they know more than me, that they’re better than me, that they have better knowledge than me on that industry.”
With a portfolio valued at approximately $2.6 billion spanning fashion, retail, transportation technology, banking, and energy infrastructure, Alejandro Betancourt López has deployed this counterintuitive hiring philosophy across multiple continents and industries. His success stems not from deep operational expertise in every sector, but from an ability to identify and empower talented operators who can execute without constant supervision. Hawkers, the Spanish sunglasses company where he serves as president, grew from a struggling startup to a brand generating more than $100 million in annual sales under his ownership.
Auro Travel, a ride-sharing venture he backed in Spain, attracted acquisition offers of approximately €200 million from Uber and Cabify in 2022. BDK Financial Group, where he holds a major stake, expanded from its Senegalese headquarters across multiple West African nations.
Each success traces back to a consistent principle: finding exceptional people and giving them room to operate.
“I Hire People Who Know More Than Me”
Alejandro Betancourt López considers himself a fast learner who can grasp fundamentals across different business categories. But this generalist approach requires surrounding himself with specialists who understand their domains better than he ever could.
“I understand the basics of my investments,” he said. “And I surround myself with good talent and people that I think can run it efficiently and I can understand what they’re doing.”
This intellectual humility separates Alejandro Betancourt López from executives who interpret employee expertise as threatening. Rather than micromanaging specialists, he establishes clear expectations and trusts capable operators to handle details he may not fully understand.
His hiring decisions at Hawkers demonstrate this principle in action. When the company needed retail expertise, Betancourt López brought in Pedro Beneyto as CEO in 2022, drawing on Beneyto’s deep experience from eyewear chain Alain Afflelou. Similarly, when BDK Financial Group required banking credibility to expand in West Africa, he recruited former Santander CEO Alfredo Sáenz as president of Banque de Dakar in March 2016. Each appointment reflected deliberate selection of leaders whose domain expertise exceeded his own.
“I’m a true believer in teams. I do believe that talent is the most important thing in a company, or in a corporation,” Betancourt López stated. His hiring framework prioritizes people unafraid to push back. “I like to hire people that are at least better prepared, smarter, and that can really… not be afraid of telling me what to do, because they know better, they’ve been there more time, and they’ve been more focused on that specific industry.”
This creates productive tension where his relentless demands for results meet specialized knowledge he lacks. Executives can challenge his assumptions while he challenges their execution.
Building High-Performance Teams Across Cultures
Operating ventures across Europe, Africa, and Latin America requires adapting management approaches to different business cultures. Alejandro Betancourt López has built teams in Spain, Senegal, and beyond, learning that consistent principles matter more than rigid processes.
“You have to have the right tools, the right timing, the right people, the right support,” he said. “And if that’s on the equation, I think you can effectively make something happen and be a good leader. I believe in good leadership, but also, I believe in people. If you don’t have the right team, you will not get anywhere.”
His approach treats team-building as foundational rather than incidental. Single players accomplishing everything alone rarely achieve lasting impact. “If you want to be substantial and make an impact on whatever you’re trying to transform or achieve, and it’s substantially significant, you’re going to need the right team,” Betancourt López said. “Even championship swimmers still have the right trainer, the right coach, the right instructors, even the right driver to get you where you’re going it all matters.”
At BDK Financial Group, Alejandro Betancourt López assembled banking professionals with regional expertise who understood West African markets better than he ever could. “We have an excellent team top people from the banking industry that have evolved and developed it to be an important player in the region,” he noted. The bank now operates across Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mali.
At Hawkers, cross-cultural collaboration became essential as the company expanded from Spain into markets across Europe, Latin America, and beyond. Manufacturing operations span Spain, Italy, and China, requiring coordination across time zones and business customs. Betancourt López credits his team with managing these details while he focuses on broader direction.
“I make my investment, I make sure the structure of command is in place and I can go in and out as I please but it’s a standalone investment,” he explained. “It doesn’t need me, but it has my attention every time I can be there.”
His Approach to Driving Results Through Talent
While Alejandro Betancourt López hires people smarter than himself in their domains, he demands exceptional output from everyone. His management style combines respect for expertise with relentless pressure for excellence.
“I view leadership as something that, in my case, somebody that cares about making something happen,” he said. “So I would drive you crazy and I would focus on the task at hand, and I will not leave it alone, to make sure my team gets it right, and I’ll be on top of everybody, I will drive people crazy, but we’ll get results.”
His leadership methodology extends beyond standard business hours. “For me, there’s no wrong time for a call. There’s no wrong time to be on top of it. I’m the kind of leader that tells everybody to check things 10,000 times to make sure that our planning is correct, and make sure that we get the result that we put on paper. Because if not, it’s unacceptable. And I push people a lot, but that’s what makes us successful.”
This intensity serves a purpose beyond mere activity. Alejandro Betancourt López believes constant engagement creates organizational cultures where continuous improvement becomes habitual rather than exceptional. When employees know he will scrutinize details repeatedly, they prepare accordingly.
He also pushes teams toward unconventional solutions. “I push them a lot to bring me solutions for new problems, and people tell me it’s very difficult, and I tell them it’s not difficult, that they’re just not trying enough,” Betancourt López said. “I push for a lot of out-of-the-box thinking and solutions that are not the traditional solutions for a problem.”
When Hawkers faced Spain’s economic recession shortly after Alejandro Betancourt López became president in 2016, the company’s ability to adapt quickly stemmed from having assembled individuals capable of reimagining business models under pressure. Rather than implementing across-the-board cuts that might damage team quality, the company made targeted adjustments that preserved core talent while optimizing operations.
“You could have many great ideas, but the execution is what matters,” Betancourt López observed. “The right executors or executives take these ideas into something pragmatic.”
His investment philosophy ultimately rests on a fundamental belief about value creation. While financial engineering and market timing contribute to returns, Alejandro Betancourt López views human capability as the primary driver of exceptional outcomes. Finding people who know more than he does, then pushing them to perform at their highest level, has proven more valuable than any spreadsheet analysis.