Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, National Civil Engineering Prize

The Ministry of Development has granted Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, president of the OHL Group, the National Civil Engineering Prize. The award was handed over yesterday by the State Secretary for Infrastructures, Transport and Housing, Rafael Catalá, on behalf of the Minister of Development, Ana Pastor.

The prize jury has awarded this prestigious prize to Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, according to the certifying diploma, for the following reasons:

“As recognition of his solid and fruitful professional career, built on markedly enterprising terms and acknowledged perseverance and dedication to his work, both of which have enabled him to hold an outstanding position in any fields in which he has intervened throughout his extended career.

Along with his brilliant academic record and service to the State, his abilities as an enterprising engineer have enabled him to build up one of the most important business groups in Spain with a prominent international outlook and which, overall, make him very worthy of this distinction”.

In his words of thanks, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir manifested that his satisfaction for this prize “is even greater due to it being a National Prize, in the Civil Engineering field, which is particularly significant when awarded to somebody who, as in my case, has worked as a Civil Engineer over his life in a series of activities related to the Spanish Ministry of Development”.

When referring to some stages of his life related to his Civil Engineering activity, the president of OHL pointed out his 62-year relationship with the Ministry of Development ever since, in June 1950, when he was just 18, he enrolled at the Special School of Civil Engineers, then dependent on the Ministry of Public Works.

He also reminisced about becoming, at age 30, the first deputy general manager of Ports and Maritime Signals, when this General Sub-Directorate was created in 1962.