Bernardo Garza Sada was a Mexican businessman who founded the Grupo ALFA

ALFA (Mexico)

ALFA is a Mexican conglomerate composed of four business groups: Alpek , Nemak , Sigma Alimentos and Alestra ....

 conglomerate

Conglomerate (company)

A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...

 in 1974. He also served as ALFA's former president. Additionally, Garza Sada was a member of the company's board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 for two decades.

Garza Sada, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 (MIT), is credited with turning Grupo Alfa into a diversified

Diversified

Diversified technique is the most commonly used adjustment technique by chiropractors. Like many chiropractic and osteopathic manipulative techniques, Diversified is characterized by a high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust...

 conglomerate with revenues of $10.6 billion USD in 2008. ALFA currently consists of four major operations and consortia as of 2009 - Alpek

Alpek

Alpek is a the largest petrochemical group in Mexico and one of the largest in Latin America. The company has 18 plants in 11 sites, in three countries. It is the world's fourth largest producer of PTA, and the second largest producer of PET in the Americas, where it also operates the largest EPS...

, which produces petrochemicals and synthetic fiber

Synthetic fiber

Synthetic fibers are the result of extensive research by scientists to improve on naturally occurring animal and plant fibers. In general, synthetic fibers are created by forcing, usually through extrusion, fiber forming materials through holes into the air, forming a thread...

; Sigma, which manufactures food; Nemak, which builds automotive parts; and Alestra, which consists of ALFA's telecommunications arm. Alfa also produces televisions, machinery, and has assets in Mexico's tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 sector.

Garza Sada also championed the modernization of Monterrey Institute of Technology, one of Mexico's most important private universities.

Bernardo Garza Sada died at his home in Monterrey

Monterrey

Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...

, Nuevo León

Nuevo León

Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...

, Mexico, on November 7, 2009, at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife and three children. In a statement released following his death, ALFA called Garza Sada, "Leader and visionary

Visionary

Defined broadly, a visionary, is one who can envision the future. For some groups this can involve the supernatural or drugs.The visionary state is achieved via meditation, drugs, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century artist/visionary and Catholic saint...

 businessman, promoter of education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and social responsibility

Social responsibility

Social responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the...

, driving force for the growth of the company and the country."