The death earlier this week of businessman Alfonso Paz-Andrade has made headlines in his native Galicia.
In a long career that was spent at the heart of the Spanish fishing industry, he established Vigo winch manufacturer Ibercisa in 1969 and was its managing director until moving on in 1977 to manage fishing and seafood company Pescanova.
During his thirty years at the helm of Pescanova, he turned it into a seafood giant with activities around the world, before stepping back from the role in 2007, while remaining one of the company’s major shareholders. Subsequently he was one of a group of senior Pescanova figures who became embroiled in a long-running legal battle, accused of concealing losses by falsifying accounts. A prison sentence and fine finally imposed by the High Court were both later commuted to lesser penalties.
A colourful and imaginative figure with a reputation as a moderniser and an innovator, he was close to the centre of numerous aspects of the fishing industry in Galicia, as President of the Executive Committee of the World Fishing Exhibition that took place in Vigo for many years, as director of industry magazine Industrias Pesqueras, and with seats on the boards of industry bodies and banks.
“At Industrias Pesqueras we appreciate the interest our irreplaceable director, at this moment when words do not come easily to us,” his colleagues at Industrias Pesqueras said following the announcement of Alfonso Paz-Andrade’s death in a road accident earlier this week.
