|
Lt.
Governor
Owen to
lecture
in
Spain,
continue
development
work
over
10-day,
four
city
mission
Note:
Updated
Oct. 25
to
correct
Washington
school
affiliated
with
wine
signing
agreement
|
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.
 |
| Lt.
Governor Owen presents a "dry
run" of the lecture he will give
in Spain to an audience at the
University of Washington on Oct.
7. |
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 the N 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.
Look for photos and updates on the Lt.
Governor’s mission blog,
Overseas with Lt. Governor Brad Owen at
http://overseaswithbrad.blogspot.com/
|
