Mexico City /
Two brilliant minds participate behind the great works of the world, the architects who design them and the engineers who build them. they buildBoth symbolize security and beauty, so one is as important as the other.
And behind emblematic buildings of Mexico such as the Papalote Children’s Museumlto Torre Mayor and the Eastern Emission Tunnel is Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA), a company that the businessman became president of since 1994. Bernardo Quintana Isaac.
He was born in Mexico City in August 1941, son of the founder of the company Bernardo Quintana Arrioja, builder behind the new Basilica of Guadalupe.
He studied Civil Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where his father studied, and He completed a Master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of California.
According to his LinkedIn profile, His professional career began in 1963when he served as Construction Manager of Structures and Foundations. Later fYou have been appointed Administrative Assistant Manager of the company Ingenieros y Architectsin 1968, the same position he later held at ICA, where he rose to reach the Finance Administration Management.
In 1978 he became Vice President of the Tourism Division and Urban Development, which he held until 1985, when he was appointed Executive Vice President and later, elected as President of the Board of Business Administration ICA.
Commitment to Education
In addition to his outstanding professional career, Quintana Isaac is committed to academic development.
According to information released by UNAM, He was a professor at the Faculty of Engineering between 1968 and 1975 and contributed to the strengthening of various educational and research institutions, being one of the major donors to the Division of Graduate Studies of Engineering.
Likewise, according to Expansión, he is founder of the UNAM and Octavio Paz foundations, and contributed with important donations to the construction and maintenance of laboratories and academic facilities.
At the moment belongs to the Javier Barrios Sierra Foundationwhich has him as founder of the Academy of Music of the Mining Palace and where he participated in the Foundation for theMexican Letters an initiative created to preserve and disseminate the work of Octavio Paz, Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
Through the ICA Foundation, it awarded more than 150 scholarships to university students to carry out studies both in Mexico and abroad.
Recognitions
According to the Barrios Sierra Foundation, throughout his careerBernardo Quintana has received multiple recognitionsincluding the Engineering Leader Medal by the Anáhuac University and the ‘Good Neighbor’ award awarded by the Chamber of Commerce Mexico-United States.
In 2007, he was awarded the Works Award cemex to life and Work for his contributions to the construction sector.
Within his career at ICA, Quintana Isaac remembers critical moments such as the 1985 earthquake in Mexico Citywhen the ICA actively participated in the work of rescue and reconstructionhighlighting the dedication of its team of engineers.
“They were terrible days. We practically didn’t leave the office and we barely slept,” he shared for Obras Expansión in 2017.
“Sometimes they became desperate because they listened to the survivorsbut they couldn’t enter due to security protocols,” Quintana said, proud of at least 30 company engineers who participated in the rescue efforts.
AGH
