María Asunción Aramburuzabala

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María Asunción Aramburuzabala

Born May 2, 1963 (1963-05-02) (age 45)
Flag of Mexico Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation Principal shareholder of Grupo Modelo and Televisa
Net worth U.S. $2.0 billion (2007)
Spouse Tony Garza
Children Pablo and Santiago Medina

María Asunción Aramburuzabala-Larregui de Garza (born May 2, 1963), is Mexico's richest woman thanks to her holdings in Grupo Modelo, one of the 10 biggest brewers in the world (best known for the worldwide success of "Corona" beer).

Aramburuzabala is the daughter of a Basque immigrant Pablo Aramburuzabala Ocaranza who arrived in Mexico nearly penniless. He was a meticulous saver and investor and tried to pass his talents onto his two daughters, Marisun and her younger sister Lucrecia. At her father's encouragement, she went to the Insituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and majored in Accounting. Her father unexpectedly died of lung cancer in the 1990s, leaving his eldest daughter with a large fortune with which to invest.

As she got her bearings, she mastered the brewing industry by taking control of a small failing Modelo yeast company and making it profitable. "My MBA," she proudly called it. She then diversified from just brewing and moved on to media and technology. Until January 2007, she held an over-20% share in Televisa, the largest Spanish-speaking media corporation Grupo Televisa. She sold over half her holding in Televisa indicating disagreement with the company's management. Her management abilities have been recognized by publications such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.

On February 26, 2005 she married Tony Garza, United States ambassador to Mexico, in a small religious ceremony in Mexico City. On April 23, they had the civil ceremony near Valle de Bravo, west of Mexico City. US First Lady Laura Bush attended, but President Bush was unable to attend. An estimated one-third of the guests were from Texas.

In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her 382nd among the world's billionaires with an estimated fortune of 2.0 billion US dollars. In the 2008 Forbes list of billionaires she did not figure between the Mexican billionaires list.

[edit] See also

  • Latin America's most important businessmen

[edit] External links