Henry Charles Ulen was born in the USA state of Indiana in 1871. As a businessman, from 1901 he developed his international activity as a construction engineer. The first large contract for Ulen & Company came in 1916 when the firm was assigned to build the water supply system in seven cities in Uruguay. In 1922 the company undertook the construction of the world’s longest tunnel at the time, spreading along 29 km, as part of the New York aqueduct. In Greece, from the mid-1920s and after having completed the water supply network, Ulen undertook the sanitation projects in the plains of Serres and Drama, in collaboration with the Monk American company. At the same time, Ulen had a construction site in Bogota, Colombia, in order to build its water supply and sewage system, as well as its railroad network. In 1928, his company undertook the responsibility of constructing 600 miles of railway, linking Tehran with the Persian Gulf. One of Ulen’s most important projects was the construction of the Ford Motor industry’s factories. Ulen died in 1963 and a small city bearing his name was established close to his hometown.