Lt. Governor Brad Owen departs Monday for a busy 10-day trade and cultural mission to Spain, where he will engage in a series of meetings with high-level officials and business leaders, tour a successful tunnel project built by the same company that will construct Seattle’s deep-bore tunnel, and lecture at two of Spain’ leading universities – in Spanish.
The mission is not at taxpayer expense, and is expected to benefit the state of Washington by continuing the lieutenant governor’s work from earlier missions as well as leverage a visit to Spain by Governor Chris Gregoire in June.
“We are very fortunate in Washington to have a very close and significant relationship with Spain, one that has resulted in advances in transportation, energy, the arts and education both here and there,” Owen said.
The lieutenant governor’s university lectures will feature his perspectives on the impact of guns and religion on American politics. Owen will deliver it on two occasions to audiences at the University of León and the University of Valladolid, both in north central Spain.
While at the University of León, the lieutenant governor will meet with administrators and faculty regarding a nursing exchange program between Spain and Washington, the development of a Jewish center for Latino studies, and make plans for an art exhibit featuring Dale Chihuly, Alfredo Arreguin and artists from the Makah Nation on the Washington coast.
Other dignitaries he will meet with include the president (governor) of the province of Castilla y León; the mayor of León; the provincial minister of economy and employment; and the province’s secretaries for education and agriculture.
At a joint news conference with the Secretary of Agriculture for Castilla y León, the lieutenant governor will announce an agreement between South Seattle Community College's
Northwest Wine Academy and the Valladolid Culinary Institute. Owen will also meet with young students who participated in the “Spanglish” summer school program with the University of Washington and Spain’s Instituto de Lenguas.
He will conclude his time in Valladolid with meetings with top officials from leading renewable energy and aerospace sectors on their common business interests with the state of Washington, then a visit to Boecillo Technology Park and to the Microsoft campus.
The latter part of the lieutenant governor’s mission will be spent in Madrid, where Owen will visit Microsoft’s School of the Future then a grade school nearby. He will also meet with the minister of education in Madrid and visit with some of the 260 teachers from Washington who were hired by Spain to teach English. It is also in Madrid where he will take a tour of the M30 motorway tunnel project built by Dragados, the parent company of Dragados U.S.A. which has been chosen to build the deep-bore tunnel project in downtown Seattle.
Finally, the lieutenant governor will travel to the city of Toledo to meet with officials with the Iberdola and Enerfin energy companies on alternative energy projects related to wind farms and their investment in Washington and the Pacific Northwest.
Traveling with the lieutenant governor will be his spouse, Linda; Antonio Sanchez, his director for economic development and international relations; Carolina Lucero, senior vice president of Sea Mar Community Health Center; and Luis Fernando Esteban, the honorary consul for Spain in the state of Washington.
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