While Marcelino Fernández Verdes was leading the contractor's negotiations over Hamburg's troubled phil-harmonic project, the shareholders of Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA (ACS), who were buying Hochtief A.G., Essen, were lining him up to become the company's chief executive officer.
Fernández has since launched a major corporate restructuring, including U.S. operations, and managed divestitures of the group's airports and services businesses. He is waiting for the right time to sell its real estate operations.