Dr. Fernando Marty, born in Monterrey, Mexico, majored in Physics and Mathematics at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, with an MSc in Pure Mathematics and a PhD in Operations Research at the University of Southampton.

Early in his career gave up an incipient university teaching position to explore the possibilities of the material issues of the business world. Understanding the need to simplify a complex problem as a precondition towards a practical solution; effectiveness as the primary objective in all fields of activity; and the need of investing all efforts in delivering concrete value adding results as the only means for success. Of particular interest to this principle, are the initial stages in the life of a new enterprise, in the identification, formulation, evaluation, promotion, development and operation of industrial projects, in industries like petrochemicals, steel and energy.

In the process, developing the ability to select and involve pertinent and competent expert knowledge in a diversity of fields was found to be of special importance in the assembly of useful working solutions, which as a consequence lead him to become a multidisciplinary semi specialist in the trade off between depth of knowledge and width of perspective.

Identifying the leading factors of a given problem, from a set of numerous secondary issues, was found to be an unavoidable step in the understanding of a seemingly unmanageable challenge.  Engineering solutions frequently rely on sophisticated mathematical tools; on the contrary, most real world business decisions are based essentially on common sense, good quality information and an acceptable understanding of human nature.

Recent specific professional experience as Chief of Advisers to the Minister of Energy of Mexico until December 2006, provided a practical understanding of the markets and key operational aspects of the energy industry, particularly in the oil and power sectors. Before that, as Head of Public Revenues and of the Vehicle and Land Property Registers in the industrial state of Nuevo Leon, financial and fiscal issues and vehicle and Real Estate transactions were the mainstay of the day to day in the upgrading of government services.

Government auditing and international cooperation projects provided a valuable insight into the operating and financial management problems of the various federal departments and agencies, including those of the Inland Revenue (SAT), PEMEX and the Federal Electricity Commission. Having led the work of the Public Debt Committee of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, provided an understanding of the intricacies of debt management as a fundamental component of economic and fiscal policy, resulting from the diverse wealth of experience of the specialized delegates from the 10 countries represented in the Committee.

As Chief Commercial Officer in of the Azufrera Panamericana Group (once the Panamerican Sulphur Company) in the late eighties, with distribution terminals in Tampa, Fla and Immingham, UK, experienced the beginning of the transition from a frasch brimstone dominated market to the supremacy of recovered sulphur from sour gas processing and refinery desulphurization operations that restructured the world sulphur  industry and its trade flow patterns.

While being an essentially mining business, of a low economic density commodity, distribution logistics were of paramount importance to profitability and international competitiveness, providing and incentive for the continued upgrading of molten and solid product multimodal transportation and trade swapping arrangements.

The simulation and planning modeling activities as Chief Planning Officer of the state owned steel industry group, SIDERMEX, in the late 80’s, with the support of external consultancy, implied the assembly of a quantitative map down of energy and materials balance on a plant by plant, complex by complex basis for the whole of the Group’s facilities, that at the time were responsible for 70% of national steel production. The resulting models enabled consideration of the strategic issues in commercial and operating executive decisions and better assessment of investment projects.

Experience as CFO of Tereftalatos Mexicanos SA, a large synthetic fibers raw material producer for the domestic and export markets, and of the Nikko Hotel in its initial project stage, provided an insight into the operating practice of financial management and fiscal planning in two different fields of business and in two widely different company cash balance positions.

Evaluation and budgeting of public investment projects was the main responsibility in the Office of Programming and Budget of the Federal Government, Policy achievements included the preparation and proposal of the Public Sector Privatization Program and the liberalization of the basic petrochemical industry away from the oil state monopoly PEMEX and participated in the preparation of the government’s annual Economic Policy Criteria framework.

As a member of the Board of Directors of  various chemical industry companies, the National Investment Bank (NAFINSA), the Mexican Foreign Trade Bank (BANCOMEXT) and some of the Development Credit Trust Funds, as well as of the Business Section Editorial Board of the El Norte newspaper, the International Sulphur Institute, the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, became familiar with a wide diversity of industrial  and government management projects in the context of a rapidly changing national and global economy and increasingly demanding financial markets.

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