Héctor Magnetto

Héctor Horacio Magnetto
Magnetto in 1978
Born	(1944-07-09) July 9, 1944 (age 72) Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires Province
Residence	Buenos Aires
Nationality	Argentine
Alma mater	University of La Plata
Occupation	CEO, Grupo Clarín

Héctor Horacio Magnetto (born July 9, 1944) is an Argentine executive CEO of the Clarín Group, the country's largest media company.

Magnetto was born in Chivilcoy in 1944, and enrolled at the University of La Plata, where he earned a degree in accountancy with high honors. He became affiliated with the pro-industry political party, the Integration and Development Movement (MID), and on March 2, 1972, was hired as an advisor to Ernestina Herrera de Noble, the director and majority owner of Clarín, the most widely circulated newspaper in Latin America. Despite its large circulation, Clarín suffered financial difficulties when Mrs. Noble inherited the director's post from its founder, Roberto Noble, as his widow. She turned to one of the latter's most prominent allies, economist and wholesaler Rogelio Julio Frigerio, who lent Clarín US$10 million in 1971. The paper continued to endorse Frigerio's centrist MID platform, which centered on government support for infrastructure investment and import substitution industrialization. On Frigerio's advice, Mrs. Noble brought in Magnetto, who took later charge of the newspaper's finances.

The young accountant persuaded Mrs. Noble to shed superfluous assets, such as a company helicopter, and to begin negotiations with the Mitre, Paz, and Peralta Ramos families (owners of La Nación, La Prensa and La Razón, respectively) to take part in a federally sponsored establishment of a newsprint manufacturer. The plan, which would cut costs by eliminating the need for imported newsprint, ultimately resulted in the inaugural of the Papel Prensa newsprint facility in 1978.