Antonio Llardén, executive president of Enagás, and Marco Alverà, CEO of Snam, have been awarded the 2019 Tiepolo Prize.
The recognition, jointly granted by the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Spain (CCIS) and CEOE, under the auspices of the Italian Embassy, will be delivered in Madrid, on November 25, at the Amboage Palace, headquarters of the diplomatic representation of the Italian Republic, guided by Ambassador Stefano Sannino.
With this distinction, we have wanted to recognize the professional trajectory of two personalities who, with their commitment, have contributed to strengthening economic relations between Spain and Italy, promote collaboration between both countries in international markets and spread a highly competitive image of the Spanish and Italian production systems in the world.
Antonio Llardén, promoter of the necessary gas infrastructures in Spain to guarantee the energy supply and to initiate the Enagás internationalization process
Antonio Llardén Carratalá (Barcelona, 1951) since 2007 is executive president of Enagás, a company with 50 years of history in the construction and operation of energy infrastructures and TSO leading the way in efficiency in Europe.
Industrial Engineer from the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, has extensive experience in the business world. Throughout his professional career, he has held different positions of high responsibility in the infrastructure and energy sectors, including that of the president of the gas company Sedigas and member of the Directing Council of Eurogas and the Executive Committee of the International Union of the Gas Industry (IGU). In addition, he has been an advisor to several Spanish companies in the sector and presided, in 2007, the LNG World Congress.
Under his presidency, Enagás has invested more than 5,000 million euros in Spain to develop the gas infrastructure network necessary to guarantee security of supply and the back-up of renewables in the energy transition process. This network is also prepared to transport and store renewable gases. Once the necessary infrastructures in Spain and the interconnections with neighboring countries have been completed, the company has begun an internationalization process and currently in the US participates in Tallgrass Energy, an energy infrastructure company that owns, among other assets, 13,400 km of gas pipelines . It is also present in Mexico, Chile and Peru in different energy infrastructures. Enagás also participates in the 878 km Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) European gas pipeline project, which will link Turkey with Italy, through Greece and Albania. In addition, it is part of the consortium that owns 66% of the Greek gas operator DESFA.
Enagás has positioned itself as a company committed to the energy transition and decarbonization process, promoting innovative projects such as the world's first passenger train powered by LNG, or the European CORE LNGas HIVE project to decarbonize maritime transport. In addition, it has created the subsidiary EnaGasRenovable to promote and develop non-electric renewable energy projects such as biomethane and green hydrogen, with concrete projects such as Power to Green Hydrogen, others for power to gas and agreements to promote biomethane and the circular economy.
Enagás has been recognized as the world leader in its sustainability sector for the fourth consecutive year in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Currently, Llardén is also president of the Foundation for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (Funseam), formed by the main companies in the energy sector of Spain and a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the Spanish Energy Club, of the Council of Corporate Action of CEOE and the Business Leadership Forum. In 2017 he received the Knight badge of the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France, the highest award granted by the French State to people who stand out for their merits in the service of the country.
Marco Alverà, architect of the international consolidation and positioning of Snam as the protagonist of the energy transition at European level
Marco Alverà (New York, 1975) is, since 2016, CEO of Snam, one of the main energy companies in Europe.
With a degree in Economics and Philosophy from the London School of Economics, Alverà has worked for almost 20 years in the most important Italian energy companies, dealing with natural gas, electricity and oil. After starting his professional career at Goldman Sachs in London, he has worked at Enel and Wind. In 2005 he entered Eni, where he has held management positions during his almost 11 years of permanence.
Under the direction of Alverà, Snam has established itself as the protagonist of the energy transition at European level, being the first company that began with the experimentation of hydrogen immission in the gas transport network. Similarly, with the Snamtec project, it has given life to new businesses in sustainable mobility, infrastructure for biomethane and energy efficiency. In addition, in recent years Snam has consolidated its international presence through important strategic operations, including the acquisition of Gas Connect in Austria, the award of 66% of the Greek operator DESFA, in consortium with three other major European companies, including Enagás. The acquisition of DESFA will strengthen the role of Greece as a hub of the eastern Mediterranean, contributing to the integration of European energy markets. Snam and Enagás are also partners in the shareholders of the TAP gas pipeline.
In recent months, Snam has joined the international "Zero Coalition" for the decarbonization of sea transport as the only Italian company and has signed an agreement with the Israel Innovation Authority for the development of technologies in the green economy.
Alverà is also president of GasNaturally, a partnership formed by six associations representing the European gas sector. He is an independent director of S&P Global, a member of the General Council of the Giorgio Cini Foundation of Venezia and Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford. In addition, he is the author of the book "Generation H", published by Mondadori, on the perspectives of hydrogen as a clean energy vector of the future.
Winners of previous editions
In the previous editions of the Tiepolo Prize they have been awarded: Antonio Hernández Callejas (Ebro Foods), Luigi Lana (Reale Group), Antonio Huertas (Mapfre), Urbano Cairo (RCS Mediagroup), Francisco Reynés (Abertis e Cellnex Telecom), Francesco Monti (Esprinet), Juan Rosell (CEOE), Alfredo Altavilla (FCA), King emeritus Juan Carlos (special edition of the award for the celebration of the Centenary of the CCIS), Juan Miguel Villar Mir (OHL), Pietro Salini (Salini Impregilo) , Borja Prado (Endesa), Alberto Bombassei (Brembo), Antonio Vázquez (Iberia), Gilberto Benetton (Autogrill), Enrique Cerezo (Atlético de Madrid), Massimo Moratti (Internazionale di Milano), César Allerta (Telefónica), Fulvio Conti ( Enel), José Manuel Lara Bosch (Antena 3), Paolo Vasile (Tele 5), José Manuel Martínez (Mapfre Group), Antoine Bernheim (Generali), Jesús Salazar (SOS Group), Francesco Morelli (Istituto Europea di Design), Rodrigo Rato (International Monetary Fund), Mario Monti (Universit à Bocconi), Florentino Pérez (Real Madrid), Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (Ferrari), Alfonso Cortina (Repsol YPF), Vittorio Mincato (ENI), Gabriele Bugio (NH Hotels), José Vilarasau (La Caixa), Pier Luigi Fabrizi ( Monte dei Paschi di Siena), Marco Tronchetti Provera (Pirelli), Rodolfo Martín Villa (Endesa), Luciano Benetton (Edizione Holding), Luis Alberto Salazar-Simpson (Auna), Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín (BBVA Foundation ), Luis Ángel Rojo (Bank of Spain), Antonio Fazio (Banca d'Italia), José María Cuevas (CEOE), Giorgio Fossa (Confindustria), Isidoro Álvarez (El Corte Inglés) and Cesare Romiti (Fiat).