He was the youngest son of Don Nicolás Gereda y Bustamante and his wife, Doña María Luisa de Borbón y Pintó.

[3] He was born in Uruguay, where his parents moved after the Spanish Civil War to run the country estate they had inherited.

Through his maternal grandfather, the 2nd Duke of Santa Elena, he is related to the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon, being a sixth cousin once removed of King Felipe VI of Spain.

He then attended Downside School, a Benedictine foundation in Somerset, before reading Industrial Engineering at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In 1975, he embarked on a career in business as a commercial development entrepreneur, which provided him opportunities to travel the world from the Far East to South America and Central Europe.