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From law graduate to global HR leader, Iñigo Capell’s career is a testament to the power of following gut instinct. His journey through banking, dot-com startups, and hospitality has been defined by embracing unexpected "curve balls." Now at Radisson Hotel Group, he champions a philosophy where putting people first is the ultimate key to success.
It began with a law degree
Capell is an academic – he completed a degree in law and business administration at a university in Spain. It was the 1990s, the decade that Princess Diana died in a Parisian car crash and the world began to address climate change with the Kyoto Agreement.
“I applied to the legal department of Hewlett Packard along with around 100 others and got through to the final three, but they hired someone else who was very smart,” he says. A month later, they called him again to explain that the candidate hadn’t worked out and offered him the position. “Of course I took it,” he says.
He was just 21 and full of aspiration, but even at such a tender age he had a nagging doubt. “The job made me realise that I didn’t want to be a lawyer – I spent my days reviewing contracts and I didn’t see myself doing that full-time,” Capell shares.
A contact asked him if he had ever considered HR. “My father had been the CFO of an electric company, and I went home to tell him I was jumping into HR; you can imagine what he thought, in his mind HR just did payroll,” he laughs. His father’s attempts to argue the case for law being a safe and respected profession fell on deaf ears. He stuck to his gut instinct and made the change.
The swap from law to HR was right for Capell
After an initial few years getting his feet under the HR table, he moved to BBVA, one of Spain’s biggest banks, as an HR Analyst. It was 1997, and he found himself in a very traditional environment. With a workforce of around 30,000 employees, it offered the experience of being in HR for a big player, yet in his team there were just six of them.
As a first-time expat, Brussels is probably one of the easiest cities – 70% of the people that live in Brussels aren’t born here.
“It was an interesting time; we launched the first internet bank in Spain,” he says. The bank was being taken over, and Capell wondered if his job was secure.
“I received a call from a headhunter and was offered a role as an HR Director for an internet startup. It was 1999 – the height of the dot com boom. It was led by super smart people, but it was completely different from working at the bank,” he explains. It was a time of exceptional growth – Capell began as one of 95 employees, and six months later there were 1,200 – it was a global base too, from Miami to Mexico. He realised it was time to move on because the business was up and running, and as the millennium struck, he joined Broadnet as HR Director.
The hotel industry offered people focused values
After two years, he was on the move again, this time to a completely different industry: a Spanish hotel group, NH Hotels. “Hospitality wasn’t somewhere I had worked before, but they persuaded me to take the job!” he says. Capell was able to name his price, and the deal was too good to turn down. He stayed with the business for the next 14 years.
“This is an industry where it’s people first, and it’s easy to see the impact,” he says. His dedication to his new world paid off, and after eight years with the company he was appointed as Chief HR Officer. He was just 35 years old.
