Biography of Fernando Martinez, Board Application

Biography of Fernando Martinez, Board Application.
Fernando is originally from Mexico City, his experience on bikes started in 1980 manufacturing steel bikes and bike parts.
Fernando has three decades experience in the world of bicycling and also has experience as a PRO mechanic. He raced road bikes starting at 13 years old and he managed and trained a successful cycling team in Washington DC.
He moved to the US in 1988 and has managed some of the well known bike shops in the US, including City Bikes in Washington, D.C., BikeTech, Key Cycling, International Bike Shop in Florida, Cyclery USA in California, Bike.com in Austin and his very own BloxBicycles Shop in his hometown of Mexico City.
He also was a National Sales Manager for Benotto Bicycles, the largest bike manufacture in Mexico. With all his knowledge ,and ideas, he helped turn and develop the bike industry in Mexico. He is well known there.
Fernando rode many miles throughout the years and in 2005 he began to turn his attention away from swinging wrenches and being a mechanic to focus on bicycle education with hopes of passing on his experience to a new generation of youngsters. He translated the original SuperCyclist Curriculum (now SafeCyclist) into Spanish and had it certified in Mexico by a well-known University, and has been working with BikeTexas ever since. From 2005 to 2007; he was the BikeTexas Safe Routes to School Outreach Coordinator in Amarillo, in the first ever and largest Regional Safe Routes to School Pilot Program in the country. The program was awarded on many different occasions.
He was also a State Network Organizer for Safe Routes to School National Partnership, the largest national network in the country, as State Network Organizer he worked at the policy level and represented Texas at the national level, conducting stakeholder research, recruiting leaders, and facilitating monthly meetings.
In 2007 He moved to Austin and represented BikeTexas on the Mayor’s Street Smart Task Force, and Partnership for Healthy Texas. He has begun helping run the BikeTexas Kids Kup program. He's also gone back to helping with the SafeCyclist Curriculum, playing an integral role developing the ParentsPlus component.
At BikeTexas he often wore different hats in the past and worked in different Special Projects as well as managed the largest Safe Routes to School PI&E State wide Program, distributing over 3 million safety printed materials and safety lights for kids in Texas, his last project as BikeTexas staff, was working under contract with the City of Brownsville, to help them with bicycle infrastructure, activation of trails, helping with multimodal active transportation and safe routes to school programs, also bringing resources, sharing knowledge and expertise to help Brownsville to become a Bicycle Friendly Community. In December, of 2015, Brownsville received a Bronze level status from the League of American Bicyclists after showing many accomplishments. BikeTexas was a strong partner and was behind every bike project in the area.
Fernando is a League Certified Instructor; SuperCyclist certified, he is Founder of Bike Rangers and Kidical Mass Ride and Co- Founder of the Brownville Cycling Coalition all in Brownsville TX, and after many years as an advocate, Fernando was awarded, this past March, the Advocate of the Year 2016 by the Alliance for Biking and Walking during the National Bike Summit.

He has a Business Administration / Management Certification from Montgomery College.

Fernando is happily married to Irene Carrion Martinez, an excellent International Chef. They have a little 10 year old princess, Viviana Gabrielle and a dog Nakuru.