Detalle noticia

From left to right, Jorge Cosmen, Mariluz Barreiros, Guillermo Cisneros and Pere Navarro

During the award ceremony, which took place on Wednesday afternoon in Madrid, Cosmen stressed that "the real deserving (of the award) is the group of people who, with their effort, have made ALSA consolidated inside and outside of Spain, as a benchmark in the field of transport."

In his acceptance speech, and before receiving the award from Mariluz Barreiros, president of the Foundation, Cosmen referred to the business and human legacy of his father and predecessor, José Cosmen.

Mariluz Barreiros recalled how the paths of ALSA and Barreiros briefly crossed in the 60s when the Asturian company acquired some buses with their diesel engines. And he added that "the history of ALSA is a history of vision, audacity, overcoming, effort, good management and success. And in recognition of all this we give this award to Jorge Cosmen."

The person in charge of glossing the figure of the awardee was Ladislao Azcona, president of the Social Council of the University of Oviedo, who valued above all "the type of leadership that Jorge Cosmen exercises in the organization. He has a calm leadership with a talent and ways that distinguish him from the world of business in the rest of Spain and that is the result of 30 years of work."

For his part, the Director General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, wanted to highlight the important contribution that ALSA has made over the decades in the area of ​​road safety. As an example, he gave the latest figure for fatal accidents in bus traffic accidents: "in 2017 there were 63,500 buses in Spain and only three deaths of bus passengers were recorded in traffic accidents."

The president was "delighted that Jorge is already part of a club of personalities who have made an exceptional contribution to the development of the very important automotive industry in our country", among which are awarded such as Carlos Sainz, world rally champion, Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, former CEO of Mercedes Benz Spain or José Vicente de los Mozos, president of the Board of Directors of Renault Spain.

Navarro considered that the ten editions of the Eduardo Barreiros Foundation Award "is a good portrait of the automotive sector in Spain" and was satisfied with the progress that has been made in it in "the manufacture of components, in transport infrastructures and technologies, in road safety and in professional transport."

This is the tenth edition - held with the sponsorship of AJUSA - of an award that is given every two years. During the award ceremony were also present, among other authorities and guests, Guillermo Cisneros, rector of the UPM or Javier Abajo, Director General of Industry, Energy and Mines of the Community of Madrid.

ALSA is the leading operator in the Spanish passenger transport sector by road. With more than one hundred years of experience, it is integrated into the National Express group, an international public transport operator of buses, coaches and railways present in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, North America, North Africa and the Middle East.

Currently, ALSA has a modern fleet of 3,132 buses, which transport more than 333 million passengers a year, who are served by a team of more than 8,914 professionals.