Julio Francisco Domingo de Arteche y Villabaso

Julio Francisco Domingo de Arteche y Villabaso (4 August 1878 – 12 July 1960) was a Spanish businessman and banker who served as the first non-rotating president of the Banco de Bilbao.

He was a prominent businessman although he maintained a certain political activity in the early 1920s, being a deputy for Markina in 1923. At the age of 25, he was appointed as a director of Banco Bilbao, and remained link to it for six decades and from there to a multitude of companies. He was the brother of Antonio, the first , deputy to the Cortes between 1905 and 1923 for Burgos.

Early and personal life Julio de Arteche was born on 4 August 1878 on in Bilbao, as the son of José Maria de Arteche y Osante, a liberal politician from Biscay, and Maria Elisa Villabaso Gorrita, the sister of José Luis de Villabaso Gorrita.

In 1902, Arteche married Magdalena Olábarri y Zubiría (1881–1969), He planned to become an industrial engineer, but abandoned his studies when he was just three classes short of a degree after being appointed as the Director of the Banco de Bilbao in 1903, at 25 years of age, thus being the youngest member of the board. He got this position mainly thanks to the influence of his uncle José Luis, who had been the managing director of before becoming the chief executive officer (CEO) of Banco de Bilbao. His love for recreational boating, hunting, and shooting was evident. but his political work was cut short on the following 12 September following the coup d'état by Primo de Rivera.

Legacy Two days after his death, the local press reported on the posthumous awarding of the Gold Medal of Vizcaya and the Town of Bilbao, announcing that a street or town would be named after him, and in fact, this square is still visible today in a small avenue in the Conde de Arteche, located at one of the links of Bilbao's Gran Vía with the Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park, a short distance from the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.