[7] His nephew Julio had planned to become an industrial engineer, but abandoned his studies when he was just three classes short of a degree after being appointed as a Director of the Banco de Bilbao in 1903, at 25 years of age, getting this position mainly thanks to the influence of his uncle.
[4][8] Both Julio and his uncle José Luis played a very active role in Consortium of Saltos del Duero and the Sociedad Hispano-Portuguesa de Transportes Eléctricos, two companies launched by the Banco de Bilbao to carry out the necessary procedures and works with which the most important hydroelectric business of the moment would be launched: the Saltos do Douro [es].
On 30 November 1900, Villabaso used his own house in the Biscayan neighborhood of Algorta to host an informal meeting between the members of Bilbao Football Club, which had been playing football matches unofficially since 1896 under the leadership of Carlos Castellanos,[2][3][9] whose father Manuel Castellanos he had known since at least 1891 when they were members in the first board of directors of Banco del Comercio.
[1] After Villabaso's sudden death in 1917, and since the bank had begun to expand in Spain, José Manuel Figueras Arizcun was promoted to CEO of Banco de Bilbao after having previously served brilliantly in the Madrid Office and, before that, at Crédit Lyonnais, where he headed the General Sub-Directorate.
[4] Julio went on to be unanimously appointed by the Banco de Bilbao's board of directors to the chairmanship of the bank after the Annual General Meeting of 31 January 1942.