Juan-Miguel Villar Mir awarded the Silver Jan Masaryk Honorary Medal by the Czech Republic Foreign Affairs Ministry

Juan-Miguel Villar Mir has been distinguished with the Silver Jan Masaryk Honorary Medal, which is bestowed once a year by the Czech Republic Foreign Affairs Ministry. This year’s award ceremony was held during the events programmed to celebrate this Central European country’s National Day and the departure of the Czech Republic’s ambassador to Spain, Karel Beran, after four and a half years of diplomatic service.

Juan González-Cebrián Tello, director of Institutional Relations for the OHL Group, received this prestigious decoration on behalf of Juan-Miguel Villar Mir from Karel Beran, in recognition of the Group chairman’s work with the Czech Embassy and his contribution to supporting the reputation of this Central European country in Spain. The award ceremony was attended by other awardees and leading figures from business and political spheres in our country.

This recognition coincides with the tenth anniversary of the OHL Group’s purchase in July 2003 of the Czech company ŽPSV/ŽS Brno, a group of businesses that span over six decades, focusing on modernizing and developing railroad infrastructures in the Czech Republic in addition to roadwork and construction.

This diversification has enabled OHL to reach a prominent position in Central and Eastern Europe’s international construction marketplace and expansion into other markets such as Poland, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Russia deserves particular mention, as it is a country in which the OHL Group has been awarded the contract through its subsidiary OHL ŽS for the Ural Polar project, representing OHL’s largest construction contract to date. The project contemplates the execution of a railroad spanning 390 kilometers.