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.

Early Life

Garza Sada was born to Isaac Garza and Consuelo Sada. His father, Isaac Garza, and his uncle with other enterpeneurs founded Cuauhtemoc Brewery, now Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery, in late 1800s.

In 1913, Garza Sada's family, for security reasons, was on a self-exile during the Mexican Revolution. They decided to move on to the United States. During those years their major income was reduced due to Cuauthemoc Brewery wasn't very profitable during the Mexican Revolution period. As matter of fact, they faced financial problems. As consequence, Garza Sada's family was forced to work for a living. Garza Sada worked for a movie theater, and for a store. In the United States Garza Sada went to Western Academy (a military academy) to study high school. Afterwards, he studied civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating in 1917.

Professional Life

In 1917, the family was able to return to Mexico from Boston, Garza Sada began working at the Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma Brewery, a major beer producer in Monterrey, Mexico. His first job there was in the Statistics Department. After his father, Isaac Garza, died Garza Sada was named the company General Director (the mexican equivalence for a company President in the US). During his management, he started a huge number of businesses to support beer production, such as a glass company (to make the bottles for the beer), which later become Vitro. He also opened Grafo Regia, a business which produced the stickers for the bottles and boxes to pack the beer bottles in. He also founded Hojalata y Lamina de Monterrey (better known by its spanisg acronym, Hylsa).

Philanthropic Activities

In 1943, along with a number of other prominent businessmen, Garza Sada founded on September 6, 1943 the ITESM (spanish acronym for Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) with the hope of producing a educative institution with strong principles and high academic performance. Garza Sada's inspiration to found the ITESM was the MIT since he tought that a Institute of Technology was better than university due to an Intitute of Technology links better his syllabuses to business-oriented topics, so he will be able to get well educated and business oriented people for their businesses [1].

Kidnapping Attempt and Dead

In the 70s the political situation in Mexico was difficult, there were comunist guerrillas which wanted money to finance their unstabilizing activities. One of those guerrillas, Liga 23 de septiembre planned to kidnapp Garza Sada to get a millionaire ransom. Nevertheless, Garza Sada carried a gun as a way to selfdefense, so, in 1973, he died during a failed kidnapping attempt, leaving his wife, and eight children (among them the today successful businessmen Eugenio Garza Laguera y Alejandro Garza Laguera).

In 2006, it was discovered in a Mexican Secret Police document filed in the Mexican National Archives that the mexican government knew about the kidnapping conspiracy a year ago before it happened and they didn't do anything to prevenet it for political reasons [2]. Garza Sada's funeral took place in Monterrey and was attended for more than 250,000 people.

Eugenio Garza Sada Award

This award was created in the memory of Garza Sada as a mean to preserve his values and ideas. This award is financed by FEMSA, the holding company of Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, and the ITESM [3].

Legacy

Garza Sada helped to transform Monterrey to a industrial city. He founded most of the important companies in Monterrey: Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma Brewery, Hylsa, Titan, Grafo Regia, etc. And Garza Sada was one of the fist businessmen in Mexico who cared about social responsibility. Through his fims he gave social benefits to his employees like medical services, education, financing for houses, etc, even though, it wasn't forced by law.

Today, he is recognized as a renown and visionary person with strong principles and social conscience [egade.sistema.itesm.mx/investigacion/sekn/pdfs/Ideario_de_Don_Eugenio_Garza_Sada.doc] in Monterrey, and the major avenue that passes by the ITESM, or Monterrey Tech, bears his name.

References

Crónica Intercampus. Perfiles: La mejor biografía de un ser humano consiste en no dudar de sus obras. http://www.itesm.mx/cronicaintercampus/no_19/perfiles.html

Eugenio Garza Sada en El Salón del Empresario. www.salondelempresario.com/galardonados_93_garza.html

Ideario de Don Eugenio Garza Sada. egade.sistema.itesm.mx/investigacion/sekn/pdfs/Ideario_de_Don_Eugenio_Garza_Sada.doc

Salón de la Fama del Béisbol. www.salondelafama.com.mx/salondelafama/trono/alfasf.asp?x=127

Don Eugenio Garza Sada, asesinado por comunistas radicales en 1973. http://www.lawaloca.com/node/2272

Vega, Guadalupe, Don Eugenio Garza Sada: Trascendencia de un líder visionario, Panorama (revista del ITESM, Monterrey, México, 13 de enero de 2005.

Crónica Intercampus del Sistema Tecnológico de Monterrey, Premio Eugenio Garza Sada reconoce mérito de personas e instituciones. http://www.itesm.mx/cronicaintercampus/no_34/institucional.html

Obtenido de "http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenio_Garza_Sada"

• Profile of Eugenio Garza Sada (Spanish)