Chapala native son Luis Alonso Aguirre Lang is gaining national prestige as a leading figure in the maquiladora industry, the commercial sector dedicated to manufacturing products for export.
Since 2009 Aguirre has served with distinction as the head of western Mexico’s Asociacion de Industrias Maquiladoras y Manufactures de Occidente (AIMMO), representing 62 member businesses. As a result of his accomplishments in that role, he was named last year to take charge as board president of the National Council of Export Maquila and Manufacturing Industries (CNIMME), founded in 1983 and recently rebaptized with the acronym INDEX. The national organization has 1,200 affiliated companies operating in 20 Mexican cities, with a combined workforce of 1.2 million.
Acting on behalf of Jalisco’s export sector, Aguirre was instrumental in the revamping of import procedures and processing costs at the Guadalajara airport.
As INDEX head honcho, Aguirre has proved to be a successful lobbyist, brokering a three-year tax-break deal with president Felipe Calderon and top Treasury officials, as well as negotiating benefits on other key foreign trade and customs issues.Aguirre’s latest moment in the media limelight was on March 14 when he presided at AIMMO’s 36th anniversary celebration and the association’s official name change to INDEX Occidente. He announced that INDEX Occidente affiliates have racked up more than 22 billion dollars in international sales, with outstanding performance in medical, military, automotive, electronic and information technology goods and services.
Among the dignitaries in attendance at the event were Manuel Herrera Vega, coordinator of the Jalisco Council of Industrial Chambers; Jalisco Economic Promotion Secretary Jaime Eduardo Martinez Flores; state public security chief Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez, Chapala Mayor Jesus Cabrera Jimenez and top corporate executives from Jalisco affiliates of IBM, Hewlet-Packard, Sanmina and Siemens. President Felipe Calderon made a virtual appearance at the event in a video message of congratulations.
Background
Born in 1973, Aguirre stood out in his early years as a star student at Chapala area schools. Later he graduated from the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) with a degree in international trade, going on to earn a Master’s in international business at Iteso.
He is currently employed as the logistics director of Sanmina SCI Division Mexico, a top-notch company dedicated to design, engineering, manufacture, assembly and delivery of a broad range of electronic components and multimedia products. During more than a decade of professional work, he has received a number of prestigious awards for the export sector, taking the 2011 Jalisco Export Prize for AIMMO, as well as representing Sanmina for the same distinction in 2005 and 2010, and the National Export Award in 2010.
He is better known on the local scene as a political and social activist, for a term as president of the pro-environment group Amigos del Lago, and as a first cousin to former Chapala Mayor Alejandro Aguirre Curiel.