Plenty of CEOs swear by 5 a.m. alarms, 12‑hour days, and punishing gym sessions—but Bupa’s CEO Iñaki Ereño adds a twist: His personal trainer is his 23‑year‑old son.
Despite his age (61) and hectic schedule running Britain’s largest healthcare provider and serving over 37 million customers worldwide, he hits the gym nearly every day—keeping up with the pace of a Gen Zer. And he credits that consistent (albeit grueling) routine as the key to sustaining long-term success. Both physically and in his career.
“My routines are set up by my son, and he follows them too… We normally do weights together. He’s my personal trainer,” Ereño tells Fortune.
“I go to the gym six times a week. I do four days of weights and two days on the treadmill. And honestly, when you’re above a certain age, and you have back pain here and there, you need that.”
But the daily practice isn’t just about gaining strength. “100%…totally, totally,” he says when asked if it helps him run the business.
“He’s starting his career. I am kind of ending my career,” Ereño explains. That generational gap helps give him a different perspective from his board. And unlike employees, his son isn’t hesitant to speak his mind—as Ereño points out, he only wants the best for his dad.
“We talk about gym-related issues, but then we also talk about our life,” Ereño says, adding that he’ll pick his son’s brains to specifically grow his “leadership skills and relationship skills.”
“He’s in banking, so it’s a different business, but more on the personal side, (I get advice around) how I should interact with my colleagues?” he adds. “One of the points he reinforces, which I appreciate, is that not everybody’s the same.”
The Spanish-born boss moved to London when he got promoted to Bupa’s Group CEO role in 2o21. And not only does he stay sharp by lifting weights. He also racks up a pretty impressive daily step count.
Ereño starts every day at 6:30 a.m. with a black coffee, a glance at six newspapers—three English, three Spanish—on the iPad, before hopping on the tube (or subway) to the office.
By 8 a.m., the meetings begin, and Ereño says they’re back-to-back through to 6 p.m., after which he takes a mental pause. “I spend some time with myself, a little bit of reflecting on the day, maybe answering a few emails,” Ereño says.
Unless London weather intervenes, he walks all the way home—a 50-minute route he initially started as a “detox” but now has become a daily habit for reflection and decompression.
Every evening follows the same rhythm: a gym session with his son, a trip to the local supermarket to buy dinner, eating, watching TV, sleeping, and repeat.
“My decisions impact many people,” Ereño adds, and that “amalgamation of staying grounded, doing some exercise, and having a stable life as possible” is the framework that keeps him sane and able to lead with clarity under pressure.
Carving out time to exercise isn’t a luxury perk of the C-suite. For some of the world’s most powerful bosses, it keeps them at their A-game.
At 5 a.m., before most of their customers have even ordered their first latte or burrito bowl, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol and Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright are already side by side—spotting each other on the weight rack.
