BIOGRAPHY

Eduardo Livas Cantú joined Gruma in 1972 as financial director, subsequently serving as director for Central America and then director of the U.S. division. He was named general director in 1994, a post he held until 1999. During this time, Gruma significantly expanded and consolidated its operations in the United States and achieved record market capitalization.

In February 2013, as one of the main owners and a member of the board, Mr. Livas Cantú was named to a newly created four-member executive committee, conceived to strengthen ties between the board and senior management. He also sits on the board of Grupo Financiero Banorte.

A business consultant by profession, Mr. Livas Cantú holds a law degree from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) and a doctorate in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining Gruma, he briefly lectured in economics at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and UANL.

Gruma

Gruma S.A.B. de C.V. is a major Mexican food company and a world leader in corn flour and tortilla production.

The company traces its roots to 1949, when Roberto González Barrera and his father Roberto M. Gonzalez Gutierrez adapted modern industrial techniques to copy traditional Mexican corn flour production and opened Molinos Azteca, the world’s first processed corn flour production plant, in Cerralvo in Nuevo León state.

Renamed Gruma, the company started expanding into Central American markets in the 1970s. Today it has 101 production plants around the world—two-thirds of them in Mexico and the United States, 27 in other Latin American countries, 7 in Europe, 2 in Asia, and 1 in Australia. The company sells in 113 countries. Global brands include Maseca and Mission, and leading local brands such as Guerrero in the United States, TortiRicas and Tosty in Costa Rica, and Robin Hood in Venezuela.

Operations in Mexico are controlled by the Gimsa and Molinera subsidiaries, which respectively produce corn flour and wheat flour, as well as the Prodisa subsidiary, which produces corn flour tortillas, wheat flour tortillas, and tortilla chips under the Misión brand.