Carlos Manuel Urzúa Macías

Carlos Manuel Urzúa Macías
Urzúa Macías at a book presentation at Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus
Born	(1955-06-09) June 9, 1955 (age 61)
Occupation	economics professor
Known for	Director of the Escuela de Graduados en Administración Pública

Carlos Manuel Urzúa Macías (b. June 9, 1955 Aguascalientes) is a Mexican professor of economics and the director of the Escuela de Graduados en Administración Pública at the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus. He also served as the Secretary of Finance for the government of Mexico City.

Urzúa Macías began his associated with the Tec de Monterrey as a high school student, and has kept ties to the institution since. He received his bachelors in mathematics from the Tec, but then went onto the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Center for Research and Advanced Studies) of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV) for his masters in mathematics. He received a second masters and a doctorate in economics and public policy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison .

Urzúa Macías began his teaching career at the Tec de Monterrey, State of Mexico Campus in 1977 at age 22, one of the first to work at the campus that opened only a year earlier. He became a professor and researcher at the Colegio de México from 1980 to 2000, but continued to teach the occasional class at Tec de Monterrey.

From 2000 to 2003, he was named the Secretary of Finance for the government of Mexico City under then mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, managing a budget of about 170 billion pesos, larger than some national government budges in Central and South America. He was chosen for his relationship with López Obrador. Although not a militant member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, he is considered a sympathizer and his politics have been characterized as center-left. In 2009 interview, he stated that the establishment and growth of monopolies is a sign of a weak president and that the dominant enterprises of Mexico, both public and private, do not have the best interest of the people in mind. He has also criticized a number of privatizations of former government monopolies such as Telmex as “short-sighted.” He stated that it is not the number of enterprises that participate in a given sector but rather how many dominate it.