Virginia Berasategui illustrious Bilbaína
What can a large company, a professional triathlete and a banker have in common? What unites a globe-trotting professor with the leader of the Spanish Football Federation or with a magistrate? Despite their disparity, the lives and professional careers of these people and institutions converge on one point: their close bond with Bilbao, the town where they were born and grew up. Iberdrola, Virginia Berasategui, Mario Fernández, Ricardo Díez Hochleitner, Ángel María Villar and Adela Asúa will join, starting in mid-December, the select club of Ilustres Bilbaínos.
The mayor, Iñaki Azkuna, made public yesterday at the City Council's Board of Spokespersons the names of those who will receive the most prestigious award. "These are people and companies that have a lot to do with our town, they have worked and continue to do so every day to leave their name high and they always carry it with them wherever they go."
Virginia Berasategui - Triathlete
Transforming sport into a profession and a way of life has always been the challenge of Bilbao triathlete Virginia Berasategui. Her brilliant track record confirms that she has achieved it. The young athlete, who first saw the light of day in 1975, rounded off a career full of triumphs at national and international level with the bronze medal she won at the World Championships in Ironman from Hawaii. The young Bilbao native has shown the close bond that unites her with the city on many occasions. Her latest proof of love for Bilbao was jumping into the estuary to swim to start the first edition of the BilbaoTriathlon.
Iberdrola - Electric company
An imposing 41-story glass tower in the heart of the town and the designation of Illustrious Bilbaína. The electricity company Iberdrola, whose main headquarters resides in the capital of Biscay, will remember 2011 as the year in which it stamped its identity in Bilbao. The company, which was born in 1992 as a result of the merger of Hidroeléctrica Española and Iberduero, supplies electricity and natural gas to 16 million customers spread across 28 countries. In addition, it operates, either individually or together with other companies, five nuclear power plants, seven thermal plants and several hydroelectric plants. As a sign of its adaptation to the current times, Iberdrola has also embarked on the world of renewable energies, and has a broad portfolio of projects around the world that amounts to 43.280 MW.
Mario Fernández - BBK President
The involvement of the current leader of the BBK in the work activity of the capital of Biscay is not a matter of years, but of decades. After working as a professor of Commercial Law at the University of Deusto, from which he also graduated, he managed to combine his work as Minister of Labor with that of Vice-Lehendakari of the Basque Government between 1982 and 1985. He headed the list of Eusko Alkartasuna for the Bilbao City Council in 1987, and shortly after he left politics to develop his career as a lawyer, in which he became Legal Director of Legal Affairs and member of the BBVA Management Committee. In 2009, Fernández, author of numerous articles specialized in economics or politics, replaced Xabier de Irala as president of the BBK.
Ricardo Díez Hochleitner - Teacher
Education as a means of progress has been the central axis of the life of Ricardo Díez Hochleitner, a professor from Bilbao born in 1928. The future 'Illustrious' of the town, who graduated in Chemical Sciences at the University of Salamanca and completed his academic training in Germany and Washington, he has been one of those in charge of making the town's secrets known to the four corners of the world. His good work as an educator encouraged President Kennedy himself to request his services to put him in charge of an innovative United States organization called 'Alliance for Progress'. Currently, he distributes his wisdom in international forums and is a patron or honorary member of various foundations and holds the position of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of York in the United States, Soka University in Japan or the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Ángel María Villar - President of the Spanish Football Federation
This Bilbao native was born to export the name of the town where he was born in 1957 in the history of the most deeply rooted sport in the capital of Biscay, football. His long career began kicking the ball in the lower categories of Athletic, a team with which he won a Copa del Rey and became UEFA runners-up, and he gained international recognition in his matches with the Spanish National Team. After hanging up his boots in 1981, he remained closely linked to this sport and was elected president of the Vizcaya Football Federation. The next step made him a member of the Board of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, an institution that he has presided over since 1992.
Adela Asúa Batarrita - Magistrate
The world of law will also have an Illustrious Bilbaina. Adela Asúa Batarrita came into the world in the capital of Biscay in 1949 and began as a teacher at the University of Deusto, an activity that she combined with the position of Substitute Magistrate of the Territorial Court of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. She abandoned her legal work to dedicate herself fully to teaching in Euskadi and countries like Argentina or the United States. She is currently a professor in the Basque Country and, since January of this year, she has held the position of Magistrate of the Constitutional Court.
Source: elcorreo.com
