At the Chamber’s 44th Anniversary Gala in 2024, the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce in Florida honored Pardi?as with the ‘Executive of the Year’ award and recognized Avangrid-Iberdrola, a leading energy and technology giant, as ‘Company of the Year’ for their remarkable contributions to the energy sector. Reflecting on the award, Pardi?as commented: “For an American entrepreneur, born in Cuba, who maintains strong personal and business ties with Spain and whose business extends and creates value across various Ibero-American countries, receiving this recognition from the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a testament to my professional journey is both an honor and a source of deep pride. I share this achievement with my founding partners, who believed in this venture, as well as with all the members of the ABS and ABS Wind teams.” The award surprised Pardi?as in a good way. “It was great just to be nominated by the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce in Florida and I was humbled to receive the award. We rarely get the opportunity to stop and look back at what we’re capable of achieving. It means a lot to our organization as well as the Cuban American community. We are successful in music and banking, but rarely do we get recognition in the engineering sciences,” Pardi?as said. Future Insights ABS is planning to establish its first roller bearing factory by the end of 2025. “We are doing everything on our own and will be operational by September. This will give us an advantage in the market because we are going to be a local manufacturing facility,” Pardi?as stated. The company also aims to consolidate its presence in certain niche market segments, including areas affected by upcoming tariffs. Furthermore, ABS is gaining recognition as a strong player in the U.S. steel and renewable energy sectors, which now constitute a significant portion of its business activity. To further enhance its expertise in renewable energy, ABS is launching ABS Power Conversion, focusing on systems for wind, solar, electric vehicles (EV), and battery energy storage systems (BESS). These initiatives underscore ABS’s dedication to advancing the energy transition with innovative and sustainable solutions. ABS is also investing heavily in research, exploring advanced repair techniques, bearing housings, and solutions for heavy load challenges, among other areas. ‘There’s no large research venture in the repair and replace business—not in gears, but more on the big components,’ Pardi?as added. Finding and retaining top-tier engineering talent remains another challenge the company fully embraces. “When you’re lucky enough to find the level of skill you need in our business, you need to be a magician to keep it inside the organization. Every single member of my team has plenty of opportunities outside of ABS. We need to be aware of this and we need to make ABS the best place to work for everyone and keep them invested in our organization,” Pardi?as added. The main challenge on the human resource side is trying to find the right engineers in the right location to grow the business while keeping sustainability and energy efficiency in mind. Pardi?as said meeting the needs of the local industrial markets will be key to ABS now and in the future—a future that will certainly involve other members of the Pardi?as family joining the ranks of mechanical engineers—fate will certainly play a role in this. For Pardi?as, he appreciates the chance to work side-by-side with his family. “This is important for me, because you can imagine working 70 hours a week for 25 years, traveling +120 days/year you have compromised your time with your family, so at least you try to have quality time with them. I’m extremely grateful for the work/family balance this company has provided.”