Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Me: Fernando Corral

October 22, 2020

Christian Sebastian

In this series, we showcase the Plug Power leadership team and reveal some of the unique passions and talents that fill up their lives.

Fernando Corral joined Plug Power in April 2009, and is now V.P. Sales for the Western Region focused on expanding Plug Power’s channel partner program, while at the same time expanding the company’s presence in Latin American Markets. Here are Fernando’s “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me.”

1) I was born in Madrid, Spain. I was born at my grandmother’s house, which was 0.5 km from the most famous bullring in the world, the Plaza de Toros in Ventas.

Caption: At 5 years old with my sisters and mother outside the house where I was born

2) In July of 1961, we immigrated to Canada. My father immigrated to Canada in the summer of 1960. By July of 1961, he had saved enough money to bring us to Canada. This picture was taken the day before we left.

3) By the spring of 1972, as a result of very hard work, my parents bought a small house in the Montreal suburb of St. Laurent. The house was built in 1942 and was one of 400 identical homes built to house factory workers and WW2 pilots training at the adjacent Canadair Factory.

4) In July and August of 1975, I hitchhiked through Western Europe. I started in London and finished in Madrid. I covered over 2,200 miles that summer. It was the first time since we left in 1961 that a family member had returned to Spain.

5) I met my beautiful wife, Marrion, in 1975. We were married in September 1978 in Lachine, Quebec, and we just celebrated our 42^nd wedding anniversary.

6) Our 3 children were born in Montreal, but have lived in Ottawa, Chicago and since 2002, we all currently reside in Southern California.

7) I love all types of foods except for cilantro. My only food allergy is to scallops.

8) I enjoy cooking paella over an open fire on a backyard kitchen I specifically designed and built to hold my 30” diameter paella pan. In all I have 6 pans.