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From Benedicte Gravrand: Dona Alicia Koplowitz Romero de Juseu, Marquise of Bellavista – Alicia Koplowitz to intimates – is one of Spain’s richest women.

She and her sister Esther were born in Madrid in the 1950’s of a Polish-Jewish businessman who had come to Spain to escape Nazi persecution and a Cuban aristocrat. The sisters inherited their father’s construction business (Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas) in the late 1960’s and the firm grew then spectacularly.

Alicia felt the wind of change after her divorce in the 1990’s; she sold her 28.2% stake on the firm to her sister for € 871 million.

Since then, Alicia has been investing in blue-chips, stock-exchange, oil, real estate; in companies like Enagos, Endesa, Inditex and Banco Sabadel; hotels in Spain, Italy and Portugal; and U.S. real estate. She multiplied her fortune and now has an estimated fortune of € 3000 million. A few months ago, Forbes’s World's Richest People listed her as No. 512.

She has also used her fortune to create two foundations: Fundación Vida y Esperanza (helping multiple sclerosis sufferers) and Fundación Alicia Koplovitz (funds to physicians specializing in children’s psychiatry). She was awarded the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil in 2003. Such is her success that a European psychologist recently pointed at her sister and herself as prime role model for girls growing up. On a more private note, she is an art collector, has three sons and lives in a mansion in Madrid.......................

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