Without surprises in the Puertos de Las Palmas Awards 2026
Without surprises in the Puertos de Las Palmas 2026 awards: the board members hand out their own awards, devaluing what Luis Hernández and José Juan Rodríguez Castillo, honorary president of Fedeport, had come up with at the time to open provincial port business to society. Fundación Puertos de Las Palmas is facing in 2026 what is expected to be its final round of ‘honours’ before its phase of dissolution, liquidation or privatisation. The entity closes out its track record while maintaining the trend of awarding corporations, groups and executives that are actively part of its own board and the business and institutional fabric of the port area. The next call should be taken on by the Las Palmas Port Authority. As a novelty in 2026, no one from Boluda is among the awardees.
Fedeport takes the special institutional award
In the 2026 call, the special institutional award went to the employers’ group Fedeport, which is a patron of the entity that gives the awards. With few long-serving figures at the port of Las Palmas, in the professional life category the recognitions went to Alfredo Juan Cabrera, an employee of Astican (Laskadiris Group), a firm that is listed as a patron of the foundation, along with Emilio Miranda (Contratas Metalúrgicas) and Antonia Bordón, a civil servant of the Las Palmas Port Authority and owner of the Fundación. Fundación Canaria Belén María received an autopremio; it is among the patrons representing the stevedoring right. To keep up appearances, Zamakona and Esteyco receive ‘high’ distinctions in 2026.
The empire of the monopoly
In 2013, Boluda Corporación Marítima, a member of the foundation’s board, received the diploma for its participation in the Gesport project, presented by the then president of the Port Authority, Luis Ibarra. The following year, in 2014, Naviera Armas obtained the award. In 2018, under the presidency of Juan José Cardona, the main awards were jointly handed to Boluda Corporación Marítima.
In 2020, Hamilton, a member of the Fundación Puertos de Las Palmas, and Tecnavín (a company linked to the current presidency of Fedeport) were recognised, and medals were awarded to Antonio Armas (Naviera Armas) and Juan Francisco Fonte (a member of the foundation).
In 2021, after public events were postponed due to covid-related health restrictions, the jury awarded the Prize for Business Initiative to Vicente Boluda Fos. The 2023 call maintained corporate links by awarding in the Professional Life area to Juan Ruiz Fernández, whose working career was developed at Compañía Trasmediterránea and later as an appointed director of three tugboat subsidiaries of the Grupo Boluda.
2023
That year, sector-specific distinctions were shared among Global Ports and Sepcan (the latter integrated into the structure of the current president of Fedeport), the operator Stena Drilling, which works with Hamilton, Canary Islands Business School (MBA) in the Socio Cultural category, and the Mando Naval de Canarias (which forms part of the board of the Fundación Puerto de Las Palmas), adding once again mentions to Juan Francisco Fonte in the professional awards.
The last major distribution of awards prior to the closure process was carried out in the 2024 edition. The 2024 roll of honours concentrated recognitions at Boluda & Suárez General Cargo (an alliance between the tugboat group and Astican). José Juan Ramos (president of Fedeport) and Miguel Rodríguez were awarded; at that time, he led the stevedoring right, and he sat then as a patron of the Fundación Puertos de Las Palmas, which now has another replacement.
The entry Los patronos de la Fundación Puertos de Las Palmas devalúan un año más con sus autopremios was published first on canarymaritime.com.
