Alumni Profile: Miguel Ramírez Barber '76 and Miguel Ramírez Lombana '04

Cultural exchange
Father and son keep spirit of 'Kellogg family' alive across borders and time

By Matt Golosinski

Forces conspired early on to bring Miguel Ramírez Lombana to the Kellogg School.

As a child, the Class of 2004 graduate was already aware of the school — thanks to his father, Miguel Ramírez Barber '76.

"From an early age I had the opportunity to be with my father at alumni events," says Ramírez Lombana, Founder of Mediotiempo.com, a Mexico City-based sports and entertainment media portal. "That's how I really learned what Kellogg was all about."

The 29-year-old recalls hearing his parents talk about Chicago and the "great experience" they had there during his father's Kellogg education. "I was really in love with the school and had several occasions to visit before making the decision to attend, so choosing Kellogg was somewhat natural for me."

Like son, like father.

Ramírez Barber arrived at Kellogg in 1974, on the heels of his summa cum laude graduation from Mexico's Universidad Anahuac where he studied business administration. With him was his wife, Lucia. The couple had just married before arriving in Evanston. Kellogg, says Ramírez Barber, 54, helped unite the newlyweds in a new country.

"It was a wonderful opportunity to start our life together. We made friends from around the world, friendships that remain strong today," says Ramírez Barber, CEO of ProfitConsulting, a Mexico City firm involved in family business consulting. Ramírez Barber also leads the family business program at Universidad Anahuac geared toward executive education for entrepreneurs and basic training for undergraduates. "Beyond the excellent MBA education, Kellogg provided us with a great family atmosphere."

Ramírez Barber and his wife created their own family (daughters Lucia and Jimena, as well as Miguel), but the influence of the "Kellogg family" has continued to inspire father and son in building the school's reputation in Mexico.

Each has played a role in the Alumni Club of Mexico City, with Ramírez Barber leading the club from 1998 until 2003, when he handed the reins to the younger generation. During his tenure, and to the present day, the club has helped bring Kellogg faculty to Mexico for alumni events.

And when they do visit, they are treated well, says Ramírez Lombana. "My father wanted to take really good care of the Kellogg professors who come to Mexico — not just pick them up from the airport, but cultivate a personal and human relationship, so they are happy and will want to come back," he says.

Ramírez Barber has been a powerful Kellogg advocate since returning to Mexico after his MBA education, training he has leveraged to great personal success. He created his own consulting firm and went on to receive special recognition from the country's president in 1983 for service to the Ministry of Finance. He also is credited with starting Mexico's first venture capital fund in 1987. His firm has garnered praise from Harvard University for designing outstanding ecological projects, earning the "1996 Victoria Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design" for the ecological restoration of the Xochimilco District in Mexico City while also winning credit from the Mexican finance ministry and customs department for developing an inspections process that has been called one of the most advanced private-public sector anticorruption efforts in the world. Ramírez Barber also leads his own family business, a real state company founded by his father 40 years ago.

In recognition of his overall efforts, Ramírez Barber earned Northwestern University's Alumni Service Award in 2004.

Today, he and his son operate several enterprises, some jointly, but also share a desire to strengthen family businesses in their country. They are collaborating with Clinical Professor of Family Enterprise John Ward on a large consulting program for family business in Mexico.

Says Ward: "The Ramírezes have a special devotion to family business and to enhancing family business education in Mexico. They are voracious students of the subject and read everything they can on it, and they have been active in all of the Kellogg family business courses and programs."

As any family business expert will note, succession planning is critical to ensure the enterprise continues. This concern has not been lost on the Kellogg grads.

"The old guys in Mexico might comprise 20 percent of the alumni here," says Ramírez Barber. "But 80 percent are more recent graduates. These are the guys who run the new Kellogg club now. They carry on the tradition."