Pancho González discusses several family and personal business ventures within a circular-economy framing: his father's teak plantation in Tizimín, Yucatán (about 1,000 hectares, 30-year cycle), a former drilling-mud cleaning business with environmental and diesel-recovery benefits (operated ~10 years, later sold), and a pivot into commercial and industrial real-estate development (industrial parks, shopping centers, infrastructure). He also recounts a personal sports/media anecdote about becoming a baseball partner through family connections.
Questions this video answers
Tizimín, Yucatán.
About 1,000 hectares.
30 years.
About 10 years.
Chapters
Teak. And that was my father's initiative in tiziman, yucatan. With 1,000 hectares, you say, hey, 30 years of planting. Well, it takes 30 years of capital investment, waiting and a whole process to extract the teak wood, which is the most precious and the most expensive. And whatever you want, you generate a bonus for the environment. We had a drilling mud cleaning business and it was left alone. What is drilling mud? The moment the hydrocarbon comes out on land or in the sea, it impregnates and contaminates. The drillers have to clean it, but they don't know how, so they take it to someone to clean it. We cleaned it when it was time to do the diagnosis. Well, that's no longer possible. Philosophically, we're not crazy about the circular economy because look, that land was used to make blocks and paving stones. That land is cleaned with lime, with cement, in a traditional method, outdoors or with heat. The land is cleaned, the diesel is recovered, the diesel is put back into the system, you get paid for it, and you can use the land for landfill or to make blocks. So imagine it's a circular economy with high clean energy benefits. You know what I mean? I mean philosophically we were doing something good for the environment because everyone was saying, no, I want my Jacob to extract I don't know how many barrels, right? Or I want my ship for I don't know what. So we've been doing that for 10 years now. I said, hey, that doesn't fit anymore. Are you interested? Put it up for sale. And it was sold. Because again, without sounding arrogant, we need to focus on what we know how to do and what we know how to do. Well, because if you're around for a while again, the world gets more and more complicated. So we divested because they helped us and told us, oh, that doesn't fit, you know what I mean? So we decided to say goodbye now with these Harvard guys. Before we sold the cinemas, kept the properties and developed an entire real estate company in a timely and commercial manner. It's a large commercial and industrial real estate company where we build industrial parks, shopping centers, where we build housing. We don't build houses, we build infrastructure. And then we dedicate ourselves, but from one opportunity to another. So they helped us a lot, especially with everything digital. Tell me about the sports anecdote. You know the famous story of the champion kids who went on to win the Williams World Cup? Well, one of them is a schoolmate of my dad's from high school named Pepe Mays, a champion kid. We've known the families our whole lives, it turns out. I talked to my dad because I used to tell my dad when I was a kid, let's get into soccer. He told me, you're crazy. You're going to lose your mind. I told him, trust me, sports and media are going to be the same in the future. I said, you're not going to lose your mind. Do you remember that moment? There were Reidos and the unfortunate tragedy of Jorge Lanquino happened. Femsa took it and then Tigra took it. Cmex. It was the perfect fit for us. I didn't convince him either. I didn't insist too much. He comes and I tell him, talking with my dad and my brother, we've loved baseball since we were kids. So my dad talks to Don Pepe and we become a partner. He's passionate about baseball.
