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Today, the chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, received the medal and diploma that confirm him as an Honorary Member of the Spanish Institute of Engineering 2018, in recognition of a long, successful life dedicated to engineering” and “his abilities, skills and worth as an engineer”.

This took place at the award-giving ceremony held at the institution’s Madrid headquarters after a laudatio of the chairman of Iberdrola given by José Pérez Arriaga, who, like Galán, is an industrial engineer from ICAI.

After expressing his gratitude, the chairman of Iberdrola said that he is an “engineer by pure vocation” and that he studied Industrial Engineering because he was “drawn by the dream of transforming reality, of proposing and creating innovative solutions to improve people’s quality of life”.

In this vein, Ignacio Galán encouraged young people to choose this branch of knowledge: “Companies need employees trained in all fields of engineering. Men and women with a clear vocation to be of service to society and who are keen to change the world; to face unexpected events and to lead technological progress. In short, to discover the unknown, decipher it, apply it and make it beneficial to society.”

During this speech Ignacio Galán added that because of these ambitions, “in 2001 we made an unprecedented commitment to renewable energy, to energy storage, smart grids and digitalisation, transforming Iberdrola - according to the terminology used by Professor Pérez Arriaga - into theutility of the future’”.

“As a result of this innovative industrial approach, Iberdrola has become an established global leader in renewable energies and one of the world’s five largest electricity companies”, continued Galán.

The chairman of Iberdrola highlighted that “we employ more than 400,000 people and make purchases worth 20,000 million euros from thousands of suppliers, having a positive impact on the countries where we operate. This is in addition to the Group's fiscal contribution, which totalled 7,100 million euros last year, almost 3,300 million of which was paid into the Spanish public treasury.

Sener chairman Jorge Sendagorta Gomendio was also awarded honorary membership of the Spanish Institute of Engineering 2018 during the same ceremony.

Profile of the chairman of Iberdrola

Ignacio Galán is an Industrial Engineer graduate of the Escuela Superior de Ingeniería (ICAI) of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid). He holds a degree in Business Administration and Foreign Trade from the ICADE of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid), and a degree in General Business Administration and Foreign Trade from the Escuela de Organización Industrial (EOI) in Madrid.

He is chairman and CEO of Iberdrola and chairman of the subholding companies of the Iberdrola group in the United Kingdom (ScottishPower), in the United States (Avangrid, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange) and in Brazil (Neoenergia).

During his laudatio, José Ignacio Pérez Arriaga said that “Galán has managed leading companies in the most advanced industrial and technology sectors, different businesses where he has always made his vision of the future and his capacity to anticipate society’s new needs patently clear”.

“A commitment to solid and sustainable industrial projects; the promotion of good corporate governance; efficiency and financial soundness; prudence in managing the balance sheet and growth with profitability have been the cornerstones of his long professional career. As well as this, he considers it essential to create culturally integrated teams, fully oriented towards achieving strategic objectives”, added Pérez Arriaga.

About Iberdrola

Iberdrola is a global energy leader, the biggest producer of wind power and one of the five top power companies in the world in terms of stock market capitalisation. The group is present in numerous countries and supplies energy to over 100 million people mainly in Spain, the United Kingdom (Scottish Power), the USA (AVANGRID), Brazil (Neoenergia) and Mexico. With a workforce of 34,000 and assets in excess of €110 billion, it posted revenues of over €31.263 billion and a net profit of €2.8 billion in 2017.

Iberdrola is leading the transition towards a sustainable energy model through investments in renewable energy, smart grids, large-scale energy storage and digital transformation, offering the most advanced products and services to its customers. Thanks to its commitment to clean energy, Iberdrola is one of the companies with the lowest emissions and an international benchmark for its contribution to the fight against climate change and for the sustainability of the planet. Iberdrola forms part of numerous international sustainability indices, among them the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE 4Good, and is considered one of the most sustainable electricity companies in the world.