Windar claims its double commitment: international vocation and roots in Asturias

2023-06-24 04:00:05

Creating the largest “hub” (operations center) for manufacturing wind power equipment in the world in Asturias is the objective set by the managers of the Asturian company Windar Renovables, born within the Daniel Alonso Group, which yesterday received at the Hotel Reconquista de Oviedo the award for “Distinguished Entity” given by the Official College of Industrial Engineers of the Principality of Asturias (COIIAS). To this end, among other actions, Windar seeks to take over the Alu Ibérica ships in the port of Avilés and invest more than 100 million euros there, which will make it possible to employ “hundreds of workers” and promote a significant increase in traffic port workers, according to the company’s CEO, Justo Acedo, when collecting the award. Together with Windar, the last two directors of the Gijón Polytechnic School of Engineering (EPI) were awarded as “distinguished members” by COIIAS: Hilario López García and Juan Carlos Campo Rodríguez.

Attendees at the event organized yesterday by the Official College of Industrial Engineers of the Principality of Asturias. | Miki Lopez

The dean president of COIIAS, José Esteban Fernández Rico, highlighted that Windar Renovables is “at the forefront of technology” and has some 1,700 employees, half of them in Spain, and the rest in France, India, Brazil and Mexico. The governing board unanimously agreed to reward Windar “for his extraordinary business merits and technologies with a special impact on the Asturian industrial fabric.”

Justo Acedo, after considering receiving the award “a privilege and an honor”, highlighted that Windar combines his “international vocation” with his “roots in Asturias”. He indicated that in just 16 years – it was founded in 2007 – Windar has gone from being a family business to “a leader in the green energy sector”, to having ten factories in the world. He also mentioned that the company currently has 144 engineers on its staff. And that engineers occupy 80 percent of the management committee, which shows that they are “an indispensable part of the company’s decision-making,” Acedo said.

The summary of the director of Windar Renovables about the company was: “International vocation, highly trained human capital, and all this from here, from Asturias”. Not surprisingly, since its founding, Windar has expanded internationally and diversified to position itself today as one of the largest manufacturers of towers and foundations for onshore and offshore wind turbines worldwide and one of the leading manufacturers of substructures. for the wind industry.

Fernández Rico also glossed the merits of the two “distinguished members”. He highlighted their extraordinary professional careers, and especially his role as directors of the Gijón Polytechnic School of Engineering (EPI) and his impact on industrial engineering. In both cases the designation was also unanimous by the members of the COIIAS governing board, during a meeting held on May 8.

The dean president of the College pointed out the “very important inflection” that the EPI represented and its outstanding role in the business development of Asturias. He referred to the “absolute dedication” of the two winners to the EPI and their work to adapt to the Bologna postulates. He also stressed that Hilario López García and Juan Carlos Campo Rodríguez contributed to the EPI being the center with the most Erasmus at the University of Oviedo and that it is “at the top” in master’s degrees, along with those of Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia and Seville. More: currently there are registered engineers who have gone through the EPI in 32 countries, and the work of the two winners was also important in this achievement. Finally, Fernández Rico pointed out that, in his opinion, one of the “keys” of EPI is the link between academia and business, because, in addition to training, students “practice from minute one.”

The act closed with the delivery of diplomas to seven of the graduates in this course (the majority could not attend as they were already working outside of Asturias). Malena Potesta González and Javier Arduengo García collected the diplomas corresponding to the best records. The rest of the diplomas went to Ana Abati Hernández-Vaquero, Sara Domingo Gómez, Carlos Fernández Ortega, Juan Pablo Hernández Sánchez and Elvira Suárez Herrero.

Among those attending the event, in addition to relatives and friends of the winners and graduates, were, among others, the Minister of Industry, Enrique Fernández; the current director of the EPI, Inés Suárez Ramón, and the president of the Gijón Chamber of Commerce, Félix Baragaño.