Francisco Martínez Córcoles, Head of IBERDROLA’s Liberalised Business, has received the  17th annual Javier Benjumea Award from the Association for ICAI Engineers. This prestigious award recognises those ICAI engineers who have excelled in their field.

The jury was unanimous in its decision to bestow this award on Francisco Martínez Córcoles for his public and distinct merits in the field of engineering, his services to this area and his renowned social and human values.

During his acceptance speech Mr. Martínez Córcoles thanked the jury and stressed the importance of forming part of a “global business project of the scale of IBERDROLA’s” and of belonging to a group “which is capable of changing its activity, which fosters continual improvement, permanent progress and favours the creation of wealth, employment and wellbeing”.

He also noted that the roles of engineers and companies are “akin to those of an engine, driving forward the changes needed to build a better future with better assurances”, particularly in the current economic climate.

Francisco Martínez Córcoles has enjoyed a glittering career, closely connected with the electricity sector. He started out in 1980 with Compañía Sevillana de Electricidad where he held various managerial positions in the construction and operation of thermal and solar thermal power plants.

He joined IBERDROLA in 1985 to oversee the development, application and management of regulating the electricity business and held various positions of responsibility involving power trading.

In 2001 he was appointed general manager of IBERDROLA Generación where he was involved in overseeing the development, construction and operation of power plants, cogeneration plants and energy solutions for customers. Five years later, he assumed responsibility for all liberalised business activities in Spain, Portugal and the rest of Europe.

In 2010, he was appointed head of the Liberalised Business for the  IBERDROLA Group, responsible for the company’s global generation and sales businesses.

Javier Benjumea Award

The Javier Benjumea Award (named after Javier Benjumea Puigcerver, a prestigious former ICAI student), was set up in 1995 by the Association/College of ICAI Engineers to honour the most prominent engineers who have passed through the Instituto Católico de Artes e Industrias (ICAI) at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas.

Other recipients of this award include Ignacio Galán, Amparo Moraleda, Fernando Conte, Rafael Miranda, Luis Alberto Petit Herrera, José Ignacio Pérez Arriaga and Manuel Sánchez Ortega, among others.

This year’s jury was chaired by the University’s Rector, José Ramón Busto Saiz, with the Chairman of the Association of ICAI Engineers, Miguel Ángel Agúndez Betelu, acting as Secretary. The remaining  jury members were Javier Benjumea Llorente, Manuel Acero García (Chairman of the Spanish Institute of Engineering), Rafael Miranda Robredo (a former recipient), Amparo Moraleda Martínez (in charge of International Companies at the IBERDROLA Group), Fernando Conte García (Chairman of Orizonia Corporación) and Mariano Ventosa Rodríguez (director of the Escuela Superior Técnica de Ingeniería at ICAI).