Eugenio Garza Sada

Eugenio Garza Sada (January 11, 1892 – September 17, 1973) was a Mexican businessman and philanthropist of Jewish descent who is best known for founding the ITESM in 1943.

Garza Sada studied civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1917 and returning to Mexico, where he began working at the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc, a major beer producer in Monterrey founded by Garza Sada's father and uncle. In the following years, he started a number of businesses, including a glass company, called Vitro. In 1943, in conjunction with a number of other prominent businessmen, Garza Sada founded ITESM, that is, the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, with the hope of producing a school with strong moral principles and high academic quality.

He died during a failed kidnapping attempt, leaving his wife and eight children. Today, he is recognized as a visionary in Monterrey, and the major road that passes by the university he founded bears his name.

References

• Profile of Eugenio Garza Sada (Spanish)