Eugenio del Barrio, the manager of the Ame-
rica Centre zone, has been working at FCC
Construcción for the last 28 years.
Tell us about your international expe-
rience?
I started my professional career in Portugal
in 1992 as the head of the civil works de-
partment. In 1998 I was appointed manager
of Portugal where I worked until 2005, the
year that I was named head of Portugal and
America. I was transferred to Miami in 2010
so that I would be able to manage the Ameri-
can continent from up close and I am now fo-
cusing on Mexico, trying to tackle this market,
very important and strategic for FCC.
How is the Mexican market?
During this period, known as the “six-year in-
frastructure period”, the new president Peña
Nieto decided to launch several strategic
projects worth an investment of 400 billion
dollars: 70% of this sum in the transport, har-
bour, railway, and road sectors. Therefore, for
construction companies this is going to be an
interesting six years when major projects are
going to be defined and FCC will be able to
participate actively in these projects.
What does FCC contribute?
FCC contributes its great technical capabili-
ties and its’ know-how and this is what we
sell to our clients with the certainty that we
Interview with
Eugenio del Barrio
can tackle the projects. We are involved in
projects that very difficult from a technical
perspective, such as the Necaxa- Tihuatlan
highway and the Zapotillo dam. FCC defini-
tely has the technical expertise and we are
able to offer technical design solutions and
execution capabilities. This is basically what
we can contribute and our Mexican clients
who are aware of this and look to us since
we are able to provide technical solutions for
complex projects.
How do we experience the Spain-Mexico
culture?
Our staff is predominantly Mexican and we
are fully integrated with our people in Mexi-
co. It is easier for us to get communicate with
them than with the North Americans. We are
reasonably satisfied. Sometimes we have
to adapt our Spanish culture to that of Latin
America which is much less radical. But the
fact that we all share a Spanish culture faci-
litates relations between Mexican and Spa-
niards.
How do you imagine the future of FCC
Mexico five years from now?
I imagine a great FCC in this country, parti-
cipating in strategic projects and significantly
increasing our turnover, becoming a leading
FCC Group company in America.
Tell us about your experience living in
Mexico?
Mexico is an exciting country with a lot of cul-
ture, geography and travel. It is also a diffi-
cult country when it comes to safety, but with
common sense and knowing where you are,
it is a perfectly liveable country and I encoura-
ge everyone to come. It offers many profes-
sional and personal opportunities.
What do you like most about Mexico?
I love the culture, the beaches, visiting the
Mayan and Aztec sites, the cuisine; it is re-
ally worth visiting. On the professional side,
it offers many work opportunities. The future
is full of possibilities and many professionals
who left Spain have come here in search of
opportunities.
Soon, we will have been in Mexico for 20
years. What projects do you believe are
worth mentioning?
The most important projects that I would
highlight are the Necaxa-Tihuatlan motorway
across the difficult terrain of the Sierra Madre
mountain range which is also very technologi-
cally complex. We are also building one of the
most important dams, the compacted con-
crete Zapotillo dam, the Durango-Mazatlán
motorway in the western part of the Sierra
Madre which includes the longest tunnel in
Mexico, and other projects awarded to FCC.
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