Sener receives the Chamber’s “Company of the Year 2024” award
The engineering and technology industrial group Sener received yesterday the “Company of the Year 2024” award, granted by the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg. The award ceremony took place during the X Edition of the awards and highlighted Sener’s cutting-edge work in the aerospace and defense sector in these countries. In this way, the Chamber promotes one more year the national economic and business development in Belgium and Luxembourg, rewarding the experience, leadership and competitiveness of Spanish companies.
The event was attended by H.E. Mr. Alberto Antón Cortés, Ambassador of Spain to the Kingdom of Belgium; Pablo López-Álvarez, President of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg; Andrés Sendagorta, President of Sener; Rafael Orbe, General Director of Defense at Sener; and Fernando Horcada, Director of EU and NATO Programs and of Sener’s Aerospace and Defense Representation Office in Brussels, together with more than a hundred authorities from European institutions and the EU innovation ecosystem.
The Spanish Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, H.E. Mr. Alberto Antón Cortés, emphasized in his speech that “it is an honor to present this award to Sener and to celebrate the recognition of its experience, leadership and contribution to Spanish economic and business development in Belgium and Luxembourg. Its track record has not only boosted its success, but has also strengthened the global position of our industry and contributed to the international visibility of the Spanish brand in innovative and strategic sectors”.
In the words of Pablo López-Álvarez, president of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, “it is particularly satisfying to present our award to this exemplary company, which was founded almost 70 years ago as a maritime technical office, being the first Spanish engineering company registered as such”.
Excellence in bilateral collaboration
For his part, Andrés Sendagorta, president of Sener, said: “We are grateful to the Chamber for this award, as well as to all the Spanish authorities in Brussels who have facilitated our local establishment. We will continue working to be a reference in Europe and we foresee that our representative office in Brussels will grow progressively, reinforcing our collaboration with the Belgian and Luxembourg industry”.
Sener, founded in 1956 as the first Spanish engineering company registered in Spain, today has approximately 4,000 professionals in five continents, offices in 18 countries and production centers for the aerospace and defense market in Spain and Poland. In addition to these markets, Sener has a recognized track record in energy, infrastructure and mobility and data centers.
Since the opening of its Brussels office in 2019, Sener has actively collaborated with around 30 Belgian companies on 18 European defense projects and 12 European space projects. As an example of these collaborations, Sener led the consortium that won the HYDEF project, co-funded by the EU and led by Spain under the coordination of SMS for the development of a hypersonic missile interceptor system, in which the Belgian company SONACA participates as a relevant partner. In addition, Sener also leads COMMANDS, for the development of technology to facilitate intelligent cooperation between manned and unmanned military ground vehicles, which is also co-financed by the EU).
In addition to these collaborations, Sener is leading the Proba-3 mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is one of the first ESA missions led by Spain and, in addition to generating valuable scientific knowledge about the solar corona, it will achieve an unprecedented technological milestone, as it will demonstrate that formation flying between satellites is possible. Belgian companies, especially SPACEBEL and Redwire, have played an important role in this mission; the latter has collaborated in the integration of the satellites at its facilities in Kruibeke, near Antwerp.
In collaboration with Luxembourg industry, Sener is leading a multinational very low orbit satellite project, coordinated by the European Defense Agency (EDA) and called VLEO. Among others, the Luxembourg companies SPARK and LIST, as well as the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, are participating.
