In 1939, Fernando Bolinaga's grandfather, Juan José, emigrated from Spain to Venezuela during the Spanish Civil War. A civil engineer, Juan José became the first foreigner to obtain recognition from a Venezuelan university of his civil engineering degree. He later founded a construction company responsible for building most of the waterworks in Caracas.



Fernando's father, Juan José, also became a civil engineer, earning degrees from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) in Caracas and Stanford University. He held a number of public positions in Venezuela-including president of the National Institute of Sanitary Works-wrote several books on hydraulic engineering projects, became a professor at UCAB, and was elected to the Venezuelan National Academy of Natural, Physics and Mathematics Sciences.



Fernando, one of five children of Juan José and Magdalena Hernández, followed in his father's footsteps and earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from UCAB in 1985. While working as a geotechnical engineer in Venezuela and Columbia, Fernando received a fellowship from Polar Group, a major Venezuelan industrial consortium, and enrolled in graduate studies at Virginia Tech.



After completing his master's in civil engineering in 1990, Fernando went to work for Grupo Dragados, which today is the largest construction and services company in Spain, the third largest European company in that sector, and the world leader in transportation build, operate and transfer projects. During his first seven years with the company, Fernando worked as a project manager and then as geotechnical advisor for engineering projects in South America, Europe, North of Africa, Mexico and Puerto Rico. His projects included geotechnical and management aspects of the construction of a new airport in Colombia; dams in Ecuador, Spain and Chile; a bridge in Puerto Rico; and several highway construction, marine works and dam projects in Spain, Poland, Morocco, Turkey, Mexico and Venezuela.



Meanwhile, Fernando completed a graduate engineering degree in bridges, channels and ports at the Polytechnical University of Madrid in 1995.



In 1997, he was appointed general manager of the Dragados Group Construction Division (Dragados Obras y Proyectos, DOPSA) in Venezuela and as CEO of the Dragados Venezuelan company Dycvensa. He is responsible all of DOPSA's construction projects in Venezuela, including two contracts for the construction of a Rapid Transit Urban Transportation Systems for the cities of Valencia and Mérida, the Caruachi Hydropower Plant and several other industrial, building and civil projects. Since Fernando became general manager, the average annual construction activities of Grupo Dragados in Venezuela have increased from $10 million to more than $130 million.



A registered professional engineer in Venezuela and Spain, Fernando has



co-authored more than ten publications on the subject of geotechnical engineering and has presented a number of lectures on geotechnical engineering and engineering management in Spain, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and the U.S.



Fernando has been elected for three successive terms as a member of the board of the Venezuelan Construction Chamber. He also serves on the board of the Alianza Empresarial Petrolera, a Venezuelan alliance of private sector suppliers for the oil industry, and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and other professional organizations.



Fernando and his wife, María Mercedes, have a son, Santiago, who is three years old. On May 15 of this year, their daughter, Magdalena, joined the family. During his free time, Fernando enjoys traveling with his family as well as studying literature and film history.