This Award, which celebrates its twelfth year, was an initiative established by the APQ Association (Asturias Patria Querida) and Sabadell Herrero. This bank and Asturiana de Zinc, TK Elevator, and DKV Seguros sponsor the Award.
Asturias, May 08, 2023.- José Antonio Fernández Carbajal has been awarded the 12th José Luis Álvarez Margaride Award for Business Trajectory for considering him a global benchmark in the business world, especially in the Ibero-American sphere. And for having maintained an ongoing relationship with the Principality of Asturias over the years.
This year’s recipient has had a track record of almost thirty years as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fomento Económico Mexicano (FEMSA), a prominent Mexican multinational based in Monterrey.
His leadership has led to transforming a beer company, Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma, into a company that includes retail activities, through OXXO, which has more than 21,000 stores in five countries, and Valora, with more than 2,700 stores in five European countries. In the health industry, the company has more than four thousand drugstores in four countries. OXXO Gas has 568 gas stations in Mexico. In the beverage industry, Coca-Cola FEMSA, the world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola products by sales volume, operates in 10 Latin American countries. Digital business units include Spin by OXXO and OXXO Premia, as well as other loyalty initiatives and digital financial services in Mexico.
Likewise, his most rewarding and preferred occupation has been his commitment to quality education. Fernandez Carbajal has been a professor and board member at Tecnológico de Monterrey—an extensive multi-campus Mexican university system—for over thirty years. He chaired its board of directors for eleven years, from 2012 to 2023. Furthermore, he has also been committed to Asturias, which he visits regularly, and is a patron of the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
This Award aims to recognize the efforts of persons, companies, and institutions, either Asturian or foreign, that have stood out for their managerial or business careers in Asturias or abroad. Additionally, recipients exemplify tenacity, innovative capability, and entrepreneurial character, and maintain or have maintained close business, economic, or social relations with the Principality of Asturias. The Award is an initiative of the APQ Association (Asturias Patria Querida) and Sabadell Herrero and is sponsored by this bank and Asturiana de Zinc, TK Elevator, and DKV Seguros.
The award ceremony for the 12th Álvarez Margaride Award for Business Trajectory, presided by Adrián Barbón, President of the Government of the Principality of Asturias, will take place on Friday, June 23, during a dinner at the Royal Astur Yacht Club in Gijon.
In addition to the winner, prominent personalities from the economic, business, and social spheres of the Principality of Asturias, or those with ties to our region, will attend the abovementioned ceremony.
In previous years, the Álvarez Margaride Award for Business Trajectory has gone to such distinguished people in business as Juan Alvargonzález, Plácido Arango, Juan Cueto, Francisco Rodríguez, Daniel Alonso, Antonio Suárez, Luis Fernández-Vega, Sabino García Vallina, Carlos Casanueva, José Cardin, and Alvaro Platero.
