Lorenzo Zambrano

On 12 May 2014, during a business trip to Madrid, Spain, Zambrano had scheduled a corporate meeting at 7 pm local time. After failing to show up, he was tracked down by members of his staff and found dead inside his third-floor suite at Hotel Villa Magna.

On 28 November 2011 he announced via Twitter that he would not seek re-election as chairman of the board of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) citing personal reasons.

In recognition of his business and philanthropic efforts, Zambrano received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in 2005, the Americas Society's Gold Medal for Distinguished Service, the Excellence in Leadership Award from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Ernest C. Arbuckle Award for Managerial Excellence from the Stanford Business School's Alumni Association.

On 15 September 1999, Zambrano led a ceremony in the NYSE to begin the listing of the Cemex stock (CX).

From 1997 to 2012, he served as chairman of the board of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), one of Latin America’s largest private universities. Additionally, he also served on the board of the Monterrey Museum of Modern Art (MARCO).

On 30 May 1985 he was named CEO. Since 1995 Zambrano has also served as chairman of the board. In his role as CEO, he designed and implemented the strategy that allowed Cemex to grow from a local operation in northern Mexico to one of the leading global building-materials company. Through more than 16 mergers and acquisitions, Cemex conquered local, regional and global markets.

In 1968 he joined Cemex, and for 17 years he held various executive positions, including plant manager of Torreón and Monterrey, and director of operations.

Confronting the situation, Zambrano opted to return to Monterrey and enrolled at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1966. Shortly thereafter, he moved briefly to Palo Alto, California, to complete a master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1968), where he was the only Mexican student registered at the time. After completing his studies, he returned to his home city and joined the family business.

He was a renowned collector of Ferraris, having at one point owned some of the most important cars in the marque’s history, including the only 1952 250 S Berlinetta Vignale, chassis no. 0156ET, which was the first of Ferrari’s famous 250 series to be powered by the Colombo V12 engine and finished first overall at the 1952 Mille Miglia; a 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione ‘Tour de France’, chassis no. 0557GT, which finished first overall at the 1956 Tour de France Automobile, earning this specific model its nickname in the process; a 1959 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, chassis no. 1539GT, which was the first of 176 250 SWBs produced and debuted at the Paris Motor Show in October 1959; and a 1962 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Speciale, chassis no. 3269GT, with unique coachwork by Bertone and built to be the personal car of Nuccio Bertone.

Lorenzo Hormisdas Zambrano Treviño (27 March 1944 – 12 May 2014) was a Mexican businessman and philanthropist. He took over Cemex, a regional cement company founded by his grandfather, and transformed it into one of the largest cement producers in the world by the time of his death. Zambrano also financed several cultural initiatives across Latin America and chaired, from 1997 to 2012, the board of trustees of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), one of the largest private universities in the region. He also co-owned Axtel, an important Mexican telecommunications company.

Zambrano was born on 27 March 1944 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, into a wealthy family composed by Lorenzo Hormisdas Zambrano Hellion and Alejandrina Treviño Madero.

The family of his father had built a small fortune in the 19th century as entrepreneurs during the industrialization of their home city. His paternal great-grandfather, Gregorio Zambrano Guajardo, co-founded in 1854 the first textile mill in the region, Fábrica de Hilados y Tejidos de Algodón "La Fama". Likewise, his paternal grandfather, Lorenzo Hormisdas Zambrano Gutiérrez, founded Cementos Portland Monterrey (1920), a small Portland cement producer that profited from Monterrey’s reconstruction after the 1910 Revolution.