Antonino Fernández Rodríguez

In 1971, Fernández was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Modelo. He maintained his position as CEO until 1997 and as Chairman of the Board until 2005, roles that were taken over by his nephew Carlos Fernández González. He remained as the Honorary Life Chairman of Grupo Modelo until his death.

He made investments in new equipment and machinery and worked to improve product quality. In 1958, Fernández was in charge of coordinating the construction of Cervecería Modelo de Guadalajara which was built by the brew masters he had trained. The facility in Guadalajara was the third Grupo Modelo brewery, adding on to those in Mexico City and Mazatlán, and it was followed by the construction and/or acquisition of another four, culminating in the construction of the Zacatecas brewery, which is currently the largest brewery in Latin America and the second largest in the world.

Fernández moved to Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his wife. He immediately started working at Cervecería Modelo under the wing of his wife's uncle, the Spanish-born Don Pablo Díez, founder of Grupo Modelo. During his first months in Mexico, he carried out different jobs at the brewery until he was promoted to the post of general manager, from where he learned the work of the Company. He was in charge, for example, of preparing and training young Mexican engineers, whom he recruited from universities in the country, to transform them into the company's brewers, substituting the original German brewers who had been in charge of producing beer up until then.

Antonino Fernández Rodríguez (13 December 1917 – 31 August 2016) was a Spanish businessman, founder and former chairman of Grupo Modelo.