José Antonio Fernández Carbajal

José Antonio Fernández Carbajal (known as "Don Pepe") serves as Chairman of Fomento Económico Mexicano (FEMSA), one of Mexico's largest and most important conglomerates. Under his family's stewardship, FEMSA evolved from a Monterrey-based brewery into a diversified consumer empire with two dominant businesses: OXXO convenience stores and Coca-Cola bottling. OXXO is the crown jewel — Latin America's largest convenience store chain with over 20,000 locations across Mexico and growing presence in Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Brazil. The chain serves as both a retail outlet and a financial services platform for Mexico's unbanked population, offering bill payments, cash withdrawals, and prepaid services. Coca-Cola FEMSA is the world's largest independent Coca-Cola bottler, serving over 260 million consumers across Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Brazil, and other Latin American markets. Fernández's strategic evolution included divesting non-core assets — FEMSA sold its Heineken stake (originally acquired through beer brand FEMSA Cerveza) for approximately $8 billion, simplifying the holding structure. His key challenges include maintaining OXXO's same-store sales growth as the chain matures in Mexico, executing international expansion (particularly in Brazil), managing Coca-Cola FEMSA's volumes amid sugar taxes and health trends, and allocating the Heineken proceeds between growth investments and shareholder returns. OXXO same-store sales growth and new store openings pace are the most closely watched metrics.