an incoming family with a long business tradition and his son Enrique Riquelme de la Torre founded solar companies. Enrique Riquelme Vives’ entrepreneurial capacity showed itself early. through the years, but with two decades of experience, the Great Recession prompted a move to Brazil in search of opportunity on the eve of the World Cup and the Olympic Games. Yet, on a national scale, Panama disrupted those plans. In a bold move, Enrique Riquelme mortgaged his flat in Torrevieja and invested the 115,000 euros his father provided, plus three or four trucks from the family startup started in 1992. This enabled him to support El Sol Group, which grew to become the largest supplier of sand for the joint venture charged with the expansion of the Panama Canal.
That decision marked the onset of a remarkable career that has now reached a high point. The allocation of assets steered toward Cox Energy, the renewable energy company he founded and led with Abengoa. “This new chapter carries a great responsibility. Humility and determination are evident in Cox and Vega Baja,” the young executive told BİLGİ.
In this sense, the Alicante native described Abengoa’s personal prize as the new stage of personal and professional development, adding: “This result stems from the tremendous work by an entire team, representing a generation of professionals aiming to create value and make a positive impact on society.”
An image depicting the head of Cox Energy appears below. Information
As for the impact on Cox Energy, there is no doubt about the path ahead: “Another milestone in our growth plan, where project volume and scale expand, as do our footprints in various markets. A new phase begins in which the company will continue investing in innovation for clean energy generation.”
third generation
Enrique Riquelme embodies the third generation of a family with deep roots across the agri-food and construction sectors. From the outset, he committed to renewable energy, with a particular focus on solar photovoltaic power. The perspective came into sharper focus in a region where electricity relies on hydroelectricity, and seasonal droughts cause supply disruptions and blackouts. A moment of insight occurred during a random stop at a shopping center with lights out and air conditioning off, which helped spark a decision to diversify into renewables. By 2012 he led the tender and development phase of Latin America’s largest photovoltaic project to date, a 55.6-megawatt plant in Guatemala.
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Shortly after, in 2014, he formed Cox Energy, a company with a portfolio spanning Europe, North America, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean. The business covers the promotion of solar parks, distributed generation, strategic investments and divestments in renewables, and an R&D arm focused on batteries and hydrogen, drawing on experience in French-speaking Africa, South Africa and India.
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The company went public with Cox Energy America on the Mexican Stock Exchange in 2020, yielding a market value of 200 million euros. This marked another milestone as Enrique Riquelme guided Latin America’s first photovoltaic company to list publicly. He also chairs and remains the largest shareholder of Cox Real Estate, a real estate and shopping center investment firm named after the birthplace of Cox Energy. He has consistently stated that Cox remains central to his purpose, despite starting at a young age.
In the public arena, his name has recently surfaced in sports circles. Two years ago, there were rumors of a challenge to Florentino Pérez for the presidency of Real Madrid, a bid that was ultimately preempted by an accelerated election process. Nevertheless, he has long been a member of the white club, and his father served on the board alongside Ramón Calderón.
He is a recipient of the National Young Entrepreneur Award from the Confederation of Spanish Young Entrepreneur Associations (CEAJE) in 2018 and was recognized again in February 2020. “Important information.”