Mauricio Macri

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Mauricio Macri

Mauricio Macri (born 8 February 1959) is an Argentine politician. He served as a national deputy representing the city of Buenos Aires in the Lower House of Congress, and, since 10 December 2007, is the Head of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. He is twice divorced and has three children.

Macri was born in Tandil, in the province of Buenos Aires, and studied at the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), where he received a degree in Civil Engineering. He also attended Columbia Business School, Wharton Business School and Universidad del CEMA. ^[1]

His professional career in business includes management positions in various companies since 1985 such as Sideco, SOCMA and Sevel. These companies were part of a larger family business corporation managed by his father Franco Macri. He gained recognition as president of one of the most popular football clubs in Argentina, Boca Juniors. He was elected in 1995 and reelected in 1999 and 2003, to complete one of the most successful periods of the club, winning several international competitions.

In 2006, Mauricio Macri was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador ^[2] of the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, IIMSAM, that works to promote the use of micro-algae Spirulina (Spirulina platensis) to counter malnutrition and its severe negative impacts especially in the Developing and the Least Developed Countries (LDC).

[edit] Political career

In 2003 Macri made his political debut when he ran for Head of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires with his neo-liberal party Compromiso para el Cambio (Commitment to Change). He won the first round of the election with 33.9% but lost the runoff election with 47% of the popular vote to his opponent Aníbal Ibarra.

In the 2005 legislative elections he won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, representing the city of Buenos Aires, with more than 33% of the votes. ^[3] He joined fellow politician and economist Ricardo López Murphy of Recrear to create a right-wing electoral front called Propuesta Republicana (known as PRO) and sat in the PRO block of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. ^[4] He was also in discussions with conservative Jorge Sobisch, governor of Neuquén Province, ahead of the 2007 elections.

In February 2007 Macri announced that he would run once again to be Head of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in the 2007 elections, heading the PRO slate with Gabriela Michetti as his running mate. In the first round of the election on 2 June 2007 he won with 45.6% of votes over the government-backed candidate, Daniel Filmus, who received 23.8% of votes. The incumbent Jorge Telerman, came in third place. The runoff election between Macri and Filmus took place on 24 June 2007, and resulted in Macri's victory with 60.96% of the votes. ^[5] ^[6]

Macri's victory was largely analyzed as a defeat for President Néstor Kirchner and turned the elected mayor into de facto leader of the right-wing opposition, which has remained fractured after the Argentine political crisis of late 2001. ^[7] The perceived blow to Kirchner's political support was reinforced by The Buenos Aires election was held on the same date as the provincial election in Tierra del Fuego, in which another candidate backed by the national government lost to ARI's Fabiana Ríos.