MARIA ASUNCION ARAMBURUZABALA

Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala was born in 1963 into the family that owned Grupo Modelo, the company behind Corona, Pacifico, and Negra Modelo. Her father Pablo Aramburuzabala Ocaranza held a controlling stake in the brewery.

When he died in 1995, she was just 32 years old and suddenly one of the most important shareholders in Mexico's biggest beer company.

She didn't just sit on the board and collect dividends. She became vice chairman of Grupo Modelo and played an active role in the company's strategy through the 2000s.

When Anheuser-Busch InBev completed its $20.1 billion acquisition of Grupo Modelo in 2013, Aramburuzabala's family stake translated into billions in cash. That deal made her the richest woman in Mexico and the first female billionaire in the country's history.

Post-Modelo, she pivoted hard into diversified investing through her family office Tresalia Capital. She took stakes in Televisa (Mexico's biggest media company), built a massive real estate portfolio, and invested in private equity across Latin America.

She also sits on the board of General Motors, making her one of the few Mexican business leaders with a seat at major American corporate tables.

Tresalia Capital (founder and CEO), Grupo Modelo (former vice chairman, family shareholder), General Motors (board member), Televisa (investor), IEnova (board member)

Aramburuzabala is a classic dynasty investor. She thinks in decades, not quarters.

Her approach through Tresalia Capital is concentrated bets on industries she understands deeply: real estate, media, energy infrastructure, and consumer brands in Mexico and Latin America.

She's not a spray-and-pray diversifier. She takes meaningful stakes and gets board seats.

Her GM board role shows she's comfortable operating at the highest levels of corporate governance. She prefers tangible assets, things you can see and touch, over financial engineering.

The AB InBev acquisition of Grupo Modelo in 2013 for $20.1 billion. The Aramburuzabala family's stake converted into billions in liquid cash at a premium valuation.

She went from being a major Mexican shareholder to having a war chest big enough to build an entire investment empire from scratch. Timing was perfect too.

Beer consumption in Mexico was booming and AB InBev was desperate to own the Corona brand globally.

Her investment in Mexican media through Televisa looked brilliant in the 2010s when Televisa dominated Latin American broadcasting. But the company has struggled badly with cord-cutting and competition from streaming services like Netflix.

Televisa's stock dropped over 70% from its 2015 highs. The Univision merger in 2022 was essentially an admission that the old broadcast model was dying.

Aramburuzabala held on longer than the thesis warranted.

Protect the principal. Grow it patiently.

Never bet the dynasty on a single hand. Aramburuzabala's philosophy is rooted in the fact that her wealth came from a single company.

She watched one asset create generational wealth and she's determined not to let concentration destroy it. Her entire post-Modelo strategy has been about diversification across asset classes and geographies while staying close to what she knows.

Born in 1963 in Mexico City. Daughter of Pablo Aramburuzabala Ocaranza, who held a major stake in Grupo Modelo.

Her father died in 1995, leaving her and her family as key shareholders. She has been married to Tony Garza, a former U.S.

Ambassador to Mexico, since 2005. That marriage connects two of the most powerful families in the U.S.-Mexico corridor.

She studied accounting at Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), one of the top business schools in Latin America. She later studied at Harvard Business School.

ITAM is basically the Mexican equivalent of Wharton. The accounting background explains her methodical, balance-sheet-focused approach to investing.

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