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The AMUPEMA Award

Isabel María García Bardón was presented with this award by the Malaga Association of Professional Businesswomen.

This coming 28th of March, Isabel María García Bardón will receive the II Victoria Award, a distinction that is given by the Malaga Association of Professional Businesswomen (Amupema) to women who stand out as a result of their social, economical or intellectual work at an international level.

The president of the El Fuerte Group has expressed her appreciation for the prize, but states that she was somewhat surprised because she still has “a lot of work to do”. She added that her dedication and hard work is “a way of understanding life, to improve as a person and as a responsible businesswoman".

When she became widowed from José Luque Manzano, who founded the first El Fuerte Hotel of the group in Marbella in 1957, Isabel María García Bardón (Estepa, 1939) decided, along with her five children, to continue the projects that had been left behind by her husband after his death in 1984.

Until this time she had been completely focussed on caring for and educating her family, but she took on a fundamental role in the company. With the approval of her children, she carried out the expansion and renovation of the hotel between 1987 and 1992. This was followed by the opening of Fuerte Conil (Cádiz, 1999), Fuerte Miramar (Marbella, 2001), Fuerte Grazalema (Grazalema, 2002), Fuerte Costaluz (Conil de la Frontera, 2004), Hotel Sunscape Puerto Aventuras (2004, Mayan Riviera), Hotel Fuerte Rompido Suites (Huelva, 2005) and Apartamentos Fuerte Calaceite (2009)..

In addition, Isabel García has been president of the Horizonte Association for 20 years, she is a board member of the Andalusian Family Business Association and she dedicates a lot of her time to the Fuerte Foundation, an initiative that was conceived in 2004 with the aim of focussing and managing the company’s urge to help find solutions to problems in its social environment.