Francisco Marín participates in the Business Development in Infrastructure Forum organized by A.T. Kearney

Francisco Marín Andrés, Chairman and CEO of OHL Construction, participated in the Business Development in Infrastructure Forum organized by the consulting firm A.T. Kearney at the ETSI Civil Engineering School, Madrid, an event that was opened by Juan Santamera, Director of the ETSI Civil Engineering School of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and Chairman of the Civil Engineer’s Association, and Eugenio Prieto, Chairman of A.T. Kearney. The Forum was closed by Rafael Catalá, Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing.

The OHL Group executive’s involvement took place at the round table entitled Internationalization, in which Julio Gómez-Pomar, Chairman of Renfe, Juan Béjar, Vice Chairman and CEO of FCC, and two students from the School of Civil Engineering also participated.

Francisco Marín Andrés told the students who gathered at the meeting about his career at OHL that began in 1987 after the purchase of Juan-Miguel Villar Mir by the construction company Obrascón. In this context he referred to the transformation process of Obrascón into OHL, following the acquisition of 11 companies belonging to Seopan, and the general internationalization process carried out by the company from the strategy adopted in 2002: “We had to internationalize, be committed to concessions and abandon all property business”.

Regarding the OHL Group’s internationalization process, which is present in over 30 countries on five continents today, he said that in 2002 he faced the major challenge of participating in the international expansion of the Construction Division. In this regard he noted that previously “the same process was analyzed in depth in large construction groups worldwide”.

As Francisco Marín clarified, to address this important challenge as well as other important challenges in any career, you have to “always set certain objectives and define where the opportunities are”. In this respect, and focused on the expansion of the OHL construction division, he pointed out that the first country in which they were established was the Czech Republic, in 2003, and the expansion process has continued to the present in which “we are present, carrying out construction work, in 25 countries on the five continents and have reached important milestones “.

In this way he explained that OHL was the first Spanish company to perform a high-speed rail project abroad. In 2009, OHL created the first section of the Ankara-Istanbul railway line, specifically its Hasanbey-Esenkent stretch, which is 206 km in length. In this respect he also referred to the project to extend the Miami metro (Metrorail) to this city’s international airport in the State of Florida. This contract was the first construction project awarded to a Spanish company in the U.S. rail industry.

Regarding the young Spanish civil engineers, he referred to the high degree of skill they possess and their “great spirit of excellence” and as a general recommendation, given the situation of economic hardship being experienced by our country, he explained the need to adapt to the internationalization process that is currently required in all companies in the sector in Spain.