Last Thursday, the Minister of Labour and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, presented the Gold Medal of Merit for Work to Rafael Montes Sánchez, former Chairman of FCC.

The distinction was awarded to Rafael Montes by Spain's Cabinet on 5 December to reward and highlight the merit of socially-useful and exemplary conduct in the performance of the duties imposed by a job, professional or service.

Rafael Montes thanked the Government for the gold medal, and also spoke in praise of FCC's core shareholder, Esther Koplowitz, whom he defined as the soul of FCC.

Rafael Montes has been working at FCC for 43 years. After graduating as a mining engineer, he joined the company as Head of the Design, Studies and Bidding Department. He was subsequently promoted to General Manager of Building and Real Estate and to CEO of the company Construcciones y Contratas.

In 1992, he took charge of diversification as Chair of FCC's services companies. In October 2004, he was appointed CEO at the proposal of Esther Koplowitz. On 20 January, he transferred to the position of non-executive Chairman of the company.