Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: Outstanding Telco CEO

We’ve heard about Jack Welch of GE and so many other outstanding CEOs. Due to a popular global media most of the good CEOs we have heard about come from the U.S. or Europe. Yet there are equally impressive CEOs out there who come from other parts of the world. One of the standouts is Daniel Hajj Aboumrad from Mexico. He’s name me not ring a bell to many but he’s company has scores of clients and yes it has to do with ringing, the ringing of a mobile phone.

Daniel was born in 1966 and has an MBA from the Universidad Anáhuac. He worked in top positions in the Carso Group from 1987 to 1998. In 1997 he became the CEO of Telcel and became the CEO of América Móvil in 2000.

América Móvil is the fourth largest mobile network operator in term of equity subscribers in the world. It is also one of the largest companies in the world and has headquarters in Mexico City. Telcel is a subsidiary of América Móvil and is the largest mobile operator in Mexico.
Daniel masterminded the firm’s license acquisitions and helped expand into South America creating today the world’s fourth largest mobile operator. He has focused underserved countries in Latin America with low penetration rates and high potential and made heavy investments to provide reliable services.

Competitions in some Latin American countries were bought out. Daniel also looked to lower income customers as his main target. He offered subsidized handsets and bought small startups where the company had no presence. Over 170 million new subscribers were brought in.

The financial market certainly approve of his and the company’s performance. In 2012 América Móvil sold $ 2 billion bonds in 10- and 30-year maturities. The bonds were given provisional ratings of A2 from Moody’s Investors Service, A-minus from Standard & Poor, and A from Fitch Ratings. This reflected some of the highest ratings on a pure corporate bond in Latin America.

América Móvil also has subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe. The company with revenues of $59.3 billion in 2012 continues to grow and leading the charge is Daniel Hajj Aboumrad.

Leading The Biggest Company In Latin America

The biggest company in Mexico and Latin America is PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos).  It is actually a monopoly which began in 1938 when the Mexican government banned all foreign drillers and formed a national oil company.  Only a handful of oil companies can do what PEMEX does.  It is performs in all the productive chain in the industry. It does the exploration, distribution and commercialization of all the products.  In 2010 average production of crude petroleum was around 2.576 million barrels a day.

Heading this huge company is Dr. Juan Jose Suarez Coppel who is the CEO and Director General. He has held this position since September 2009.  With its huge size and available area for exploration and drilling you may think he has an easy job.  In fact his job is actually difficult as PEMEX cannot be run like an ordinary private oil firm since it is government owned.  

For one PEMEX sends most of its profits to the government. It currently accounts for one third of the government’s income which is a huge amount. This is something that the government cannot forego. There are also many government interests who want their own say in running the company.  Wages are also pegged to government scale which is lower than the oil industry’s. This means it can’t hire the best or retain the best workers.

Thus the company has large potentials which it can’t fully exploit.  Suarez is very much aware of this but understands the changes won’t happen overnight and it will take a lot hard work.   Prior to heading PEMEX he held a number of high positions in other companies such as CFO and Vice President of Administration and Finance at Grupo Modelo, S.A.B. de V.C.