Eugenio Garza Lagüera (18 December 1923 – 24 May 2008) was a Mexican businessman and philanthropist who served as chairman of the board of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and Femsa,

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

's largest beverage corporation. In February 2008 he was laureated with the Business Social Responsibility Award from the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...

, a nonpartisan institution created by the U.S. Congress within the

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Biography

Garza Lagüera was born in

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is ancho ...

as the first son of industrialist Eugenio Garza Sada and Consuelo Lagüera Zambrano. After finishing high school at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, Missouri, he received a bachelor's degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...

from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and an MBA from the Monterrey Institute of Technology, a private university founded and sponsored by his father. He began his professional life at a laboratory of ''Técnica Industrial'' in 1947. In 1969 he was appointed to the Grupo Visa's board of directors, which he chaired starting in 1981. He also presided over the Serfín Bank during the

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named "dollar" ...

devaluation of 1982 and the subsequent

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to priv ...

of all private banks. Grupo Serfín lost half its size at that time and had to be reorganized accordingly. In 1991 when the government decided to re-privatize the banking system, Eugenio Garza Lagüera bought the Bancomer Banking Group. Garza Lagüera died on 24 May 2008 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, at the age of 84.

References

1926 births 2008 deaths Mexican brewers Mexican bankers Businesspeople from Monterrey Cockrell School of Engineering alumni Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education alumni Chaminade College Preparatory School (Missouri) alumni {{mexico-business-bio-stub