Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, President of OHL, MDI award 2010

Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, president of OHL has been awarded the MDI Award 2010 for Best Construction and Property Development Businessman that is awarded by the Masters in Management of Construction and Property Development Companies from the Advanced Technical School of Architecture which is part of the Madrid Polytechnic University.

A deciding factor in the selection of Juan-Miguel Villar Mir by the Governing Board of the Masters in Management of Construction and Property Development Companies was his contribution to the development of the property sector and construction throughout the last twenty years. He did this managing a company with ample international activity and diverse fields of business among which stand out construction, concessions, property development and the industrial and environmental fields.

At a time of hardship and a trust crisis it needs to be pointed out what an opportunity this Award is, being awarded to a leader who established his origins with the purchase of companies deeply in crisis, achieving their survival as well as the jobs of lots of their workers. The award intends to honor in the person of Juan-Miguel Villar Mir those businesspeople who base their success on permanent effort in favour of creating employment, constant innovation and sustainable growth upheld on ethical values as the fundamental axis of a plan that will allow the recuperation of the economy.

The MDI Award for the Best Construction and Property Development Businessman is bestowed annually and will be officially awarded in June during a ceremony that will take place in the ceremony hall at the the Madrid Polytechnic University’s Advanced Technical School of Architecture.

The Governing Board of the Masters in Management of Construction and Property Development Companies is composed of Spain’s main organisations, public and private institutions, construction and property associations and professional colleges. The latest bestowal of the Award was chaired by Javier de Cardenas y Chavarri, General Manager of the MDI.

In previous years the Award has been given to Anton Duran (Dragados Construcciones), Rafael del Pino (Ferrovial), Jose Maria Entrecanales (the Acciona Group), Luis Marsa (La Llave de Oro), Alicia and Esther Koplowitz (Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas), Martin Eyries (Vallehermoso), Gabriel Escarrer (the Sol-Melia Group), Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda, Florentino Perez (ACS), Rafael Santamaria (Reyal Grupo), Manuel Jove (the Fadesa Group), Xavier Solano (the Restaura Group), Luis del Rivero (Sacyr-Vallehermoso), Jose Manuel Entrecanales (Acciona) y Juan Antonio Carpintero (the Ortiz Group).

The OHL Group

OHL is one of the largest construction and services groups in Spain. They work in concessions, construction, development and environmental and industrial fields in Spain and have 100 years of experience nationally and internationally and operate with a strong presence in 22 countries across 4 continents.

The head of the Group in the field of concessions is one of the foremost transport infrastructure concessionaires in the world. It possesses a portfolio of 22 concessionaires which manage 4,400 kilometers of toll motorways, of which 96 % are operating at present. They also manage Toluca International Airport which services Mexico City, a commercial port and four leisure ports in Spain and, in the railway sector, have two light rail lines and a local rail line in the Community of Madrid.

Their international activity began in 1912 with the construction of two docks in the Port of Lisbon. Since then OHL has constructed and constructs all kinds of works abroad. In 2009 they were undertaking works in fifteen countries.

OHL National Construction began in 1911, the date Obrascon was formed, and are active in all areas of the construction sector in Spain. There is no sub sector outside their range of experience. They are the sixth largest national construction company. They are divided into three main lines of work: National Civil Works, National Building Construction and Infrastructure Services.

OHL Industrial is a company of impressive international projection specialised in turnkey industrial projects. The division specialised in property development, named Developments, focuses the Group’s assets on the promotion and management of tourist complexes and leisure centres of the highest category. OHL Environmental Inima, head of environmental activity, is a company of note within their sector for their volume of work, multinational presence as a developer and desalination plant concessionaire, and for their own technology in desalination processes by osmosis.

Master MDI

The Masters in Management of Construction and Property Development Companies MDI operates in eight countries. It was created 23 years ago and over 7,000 students have passed through their classes; students who occupy and have occupied distinguished managerial posts in both Spanish and international leading companies.