Ferrovial founder dies

Rafael del Pino y Moreno, the founder and honorary chairman of Ferrovial has died. He was 87.

Mr del Pino, who held a PhD in civil engineering, founded Ferrovial in 1952. He chaired the company for the next 48 years before handing over to his son Rafael del Pino y Calvo-Sotelo in 2000. He remained honourary chairman of the company. Following his retirement from the day-to-day management of Ferrovial in 2000 he deveoted more time to the charitable foundation that bears his name, with the aim of "Giving back to society part of what society gave to me in my personal and professional life."

Ferrovial's first construction contracts were to repair railway tracks and sleepers, and it won its first project in the Burgos province of Spain. By the 1960s the company was working elsewhere in Europe and had expanded into road building, hydroelectric plants and water treatment works. A further milestone came with the construction of the Bilbao-Behobia toll road in Spain, which saw the company move into infrastructure concessions.

The 1970s saw Mr del Pino diversify Ferrovial further, with more international work and expansion into concessions, real estate development, municipal services work and infrastructure maintenance. Today the company operates in more than 40 countries with 100000 employees and revenues of more than € 14 billion last year.

Last year Ferrovial was ranked 11th largest construction company in the world in International Construction's league table of the industry's 200 biggest players. Construction Europe placed the company 6th largest in Europe in the CE-100 ranking's of the region's largest contractors.