6 FOREIGN LANGUAGE NEWS 054CANARY ISLANDS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Full steam ahead

Born in Santa Cruz de Tener-ife, Ricardo Melchior is a per-son who is characterised by his commitment and preoccupa-tion for social causes and wel-fare, which has been one of the biggest priorities of his illustri-ous political career.He studied Industrial Engi-neering at the University of Navarre and continued his education with Engineering Economics and Machine Construction at the Upper Technical School of Aachen in Germany. He returned to Tenerife in 1977 and was immediately named head of CAPSA, the company in charge of running the ports of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and

La Palma, which is where he began his longstanding pro-fessional career and he cur-rently holds the presidency.In his wide professional and personal trajectory, he has been recognised and hon-oured by various countries including Ireland where he was named Doctor Honoris Causa in renewable energies by the National University. He has spent over a quarter of a century working in that field. He was decorated by the Presi-dent of the French Republic as a Knight of the National Order of Merit in recognition of his work promoting social progress and citizenship. And the Dan-ish Royal Family named him

the Hans Christian Anderson Spanish Ambassador on the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Danish author. Elected president of the Ten-erife Cabildo at four consecu-tive elections, among other pro-jects, he backed the creation of the Metropolitan tram and Project Alix (which converted Tenerife into the telecommu-nications hub of the Western

Melchior has a new and important role as the president of the ports of the province of Tenerife

A nostalgic relic - the old jetty which saw thousands of departures to Europe and South America

The new cruise terminal

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