Mario de Gandarillas Martos

Mario de Gandarillas Martos is a partner in the Family Business (Empresa Familiar) area of VACIERO, a Spanish professional services firm providing legal and economic advice to businesses. A specialist in the governance and continuity of family-owned enterprises, he has been named the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026 “Family Business Law Expert of the Year in Spain”.

Leading VACIERO's family business practice

At VACIERO, Mario de Gandarillas Martos leads projects centred on the particular challenges faced by business-owning families. His work encompasses mediation and the drafting of Family Agreements, Family Protocols and Family Strategic Plans, as well as succession planning, shareholders' agreements (pactos de socios) and Family Office matters. These instruments are the practical tools through which family enterprises reconcile the interests of the business with those of the family, establishing rules for ownership, management, decision-making and the transfer of the company between generations.

Family business law is a distinctive discipline because it deals not only with corporate and commercial questions but also with relationships. Succession, governance and shareholder arrangements in a family company must account for personal dynamics as well as legal and economic realities, and the drafting of a family protocol is as much an exercise in building consensus as it is in legal engineering. Mario de Gandarillas Martos's practice is built precisely around this combination of technical and human dimensions.

Two decades of international experience

He brings more than twenty years of experience directing consulting projects for business families across Europe and Latin America, and has acted as a trainer of consulting professionals in fifteen countries. This international dimension is significant: family enterprises increasingly operate across borders, and the governance frameworks they adopt must work for family members and assets located in different jurisdictions. His experience advising founders, helping clients resolve conflicts and designing corporate governance systems tailored to each situation reflects a career devoted to the long-term continuity of family businesses.

Qualifications and training

Mario de Gandarillas Martos holds a Law degree from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and is a member of the Madrid Bar Association (Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid). He has complemented his legal training with study directly relevant to the family dimension of his work, including an advanced course within the Master of Family Therapy at the Zurbano Group and complementary training from the Family Firm Institute, an international body dedicated to the field of family enterprise. This unusual blend of legal, governance and family-systems training equips him to address family business issues from every angle.

Family business in the Spanish economy

Family-owned companies form the backbone of the Spanish economy, spanning everything from small enterprises to large industrial groups. Their long-term success depends heavily on how well they manage succession and governance: the transition between generations is one of the moments at which family businesses are most vulnerable. Well-designed family protocols, clear shareholder arrangements and effective governance structures help preserve both the value of the business and the unity of the family that owns it. Specialist advisers who can guide families through these processes – combining legal rigour with sensitivity to family relationships and, where necessary, mediation – play a critical role in ensuring that Spanish family enterprises endure.

Mediation and governance in practice

A distinctive feature of Mario de Gandarillas Martos's work is the emphasis he places on mediation and consensus-building within family enterprises. The legal instruments at the centre of family business practice – protocols, shareholder agreements and succession plans – only achieve their purpose if the family members who are bound by them genuinely understand and accept them. His training in both law and family-systems disciplines allows him to guide families through the sensitive conversations that precede a durable agreement, resolving latent conflicts before they crystallise and designing governance structures that fit the particular circumstances of each family and business. It is this ability to combine technical drafting with the human management of family relationships, across many jurisdictions, that has defined his career.

The Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026 “Family Business Law Expert of the Year in Spain” recognises Mario de Gandarillas Martos for his leadership of the family business practice at VACIERO and for his extensive, internationally informed experience advising business families on governance, succession and continuity.