FEMSA and Tecnológico de Monterrey Honor Projects with Social Impact

The Eugenio Garza Sada Award returned for its 33rd edition with a focus on people and institutions turning social commitment into practical projects for Mexico. Tecnológico de Monterrey and FEMSA presented the 2026 awards during a ceremony on Sept. 2 at the university’s Monterrey campus.

The award recognizes three areas: humanistic business leadership, social entrepreneurship, and student social innovation. This year’s ceremony honored students from Tecnológico de Monterrey and Universidad Tecmilenio, as well as business leaders and national and international institutions that developed solutions to significant problems affecting communities.

Since its creation in 1993, the award has recognized 81 winners. Their initiatives have benefited more than 9 million people and addressed challenges in health, education, and the environment. The prize commemorates Eugenio Garza Sada, founder of Tecnológico de Monterrey and a major figure in the development of companies and institutions including FEMSA.

Eric Hágsater Gartenberg, an EXATEC graduate from the class of 1968 and president of Grupo Chinoin, received the award for humanistic business leadership. The recognition cited a career connecting business growth with science, nature conservation, health, and education.

Grupo Chinoin, a pharmaceutical company with more than 90 years of history, employs about 800 people and produces seven of the 200 medicines most prescribed in Mexico. The company has also introduced technological and environmental measures, including a trigeneration plant that has reduced its carbon footprint by 80 percent. Hágsater has spent more than four decades involved in environmental conservation and founded and formerly led Pronatura. FEMSA Executive Chairman José Antonio Fernández Carbajal said the current era brings both difficulties and opportunities, including the challenge of preserving dignity through freedom and democracy while pursuing economic and technological development.

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We live in an era of challenges and difficulties, but also of opportunities. Our task is to make use of them to confront the dual challenge of preserving dignity, expressed through freedom and democracy, alongside economic and technological development.