President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has proposed Lorenzo Mauricio Meyer Falcón, the brother of the current secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development and son of the historian Lorenzo Meyer, and who has remained one of the intellectuals close to the president, as an independent advisor of the state-owned Pemex.
With this –and if the presidential nomination is approved– the five seats for independent members within the board of directors of the oil company would be occupied by characters close to López Obrador and the possibility of a counterweight in the body, of which the company is also part, would be dissolved. secretary Rocío Nahle and the director of the Federal Electricity Commission, Manuel Bartlett.
The five have been elected during the current administration. The resignation of three directors at the end of 2019, derived from a series of disagreements related to the presidential strategy to manage the state company and the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery, opened the space for the seats destined for independent directors to be given to personalities. close to the president.
The oil company’s legislation establishes that the directors must be nominated by the president and approved by the Senate. They are the independent members of the Pemex board:
Laura Itzel Castillo Juarez
Castillo, the only woman who occupies a seat as a director of the state company, assumed the position between indications of having no experience in the sector, but having the permission of Octavio Romero Oropeza, director of the state company, and Secretary Nahle.
The counselor, appointed in December 2020 to hold the position for five years, has a degree in architecture and her experience focuses on environmental issues and renewable energy.
According to the curriculum contained on the Pemex page, Castillo was the general director of the Mobility 1 system in Mexico City between 2015 and 2018, and a federal deputy twice.
She accompanied President López Obrador during his tenure as head of government of Mexico City, as Secretary of Urban Development and Housing of the then Federal District. He left office in 2005 to be part of the president’s campaign, before seeking the presidency for the first time.
Jose Eduardo Beltran Hernandez
With political experience in the south of the country, the appointment of Beltrán Hernández took place in the midst of doubts due to the political closeness between President López Obrador and the Tabasco president.
Beltrán Hernández’s career has been concentrated in public office in the state of Tabasco. He was general secretary of the state government during the administration of Enrique González Pedrero and local deputy between 1985 and 1988, when he headed the presidency of the Energy Commission of the Lower House.
According to public information from Pemex, Beltrán has not held positions within any company in the sector. Instead, his career has also involved academic positions at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he graduated with a degree in Political and Social Sciences.
Juan José Paullada Figueroa
Paullada Figueroa’s experience focuses on administrative and financial issues.
Before becoming a councilor for the state company, his professional career was far from public administration. He has been managing partner of Paullada, Guevara y Asociados for the last 20 years, a law firm specializing in tax, financial and corporate advice.
Within the public administration, the highest position he held was that of Tax Attorney of the Federation between 2019 and 2020. Before that, his professional career was developed in the Liquidation Trust of Auxiliary Credit Institutions and Organizations, the National Fisheries Bank and Port, and the Internal Trade Bank.
Paullada has been a professor of tax law and tax policy and has graduate degrees from the University of Southern California, Boston University, and Harvard University.
Humberto Domingo Mayans Canabal
Mayans Canabal was appointed directly by the president as advisor to the oil company, after the Senate rejected one of the presidential proposals on two consecutive occasions.
With a political career, Mayans Canabal has been a senator for Tabasco twice, a plurinominal deputy, and an attache at the Spanish embassy between 1990 and 1991.
He is the only director who has been part of the ranks of the state-owned Pemex, as a representative before the Conciliation and Arbitration Board. Although most of his career has focused on Tabasco, where he is from. In the state, he was general secretary and secretary of communications, settlements and works.
