Rómulo O'Farrill

Mexican Media Entrepreneur.

Award Motivation

For his creation of Televisa and contribution to Mexican Media.

Award details

Rómulo O’Farrill was a Mexican media entrepreneur. Born in 1917, he was the eldest son of Rómulo O’Farrill Silva, an automobile industrialist and publisher who co-founded ‘Telesistema Mexicano’, ‘Novedades’ and ‘The News’, as well as ‘Instituto Mexicano de Rehabilitación’. In 1933 he attended the United States Benedictine based school, St Anselm College, in order to learn English. After graduating in 1937, he received an MBA from the Detroit Business Centre. In 1949 Mr O’Farrill and his father obtained a concession from the XHTV-Channel 4, the first commercial television station to be used in Mexico. The first commercial broadcast from the station was the state of the union address by President Miguel Aleman Valdes in September 1950. The family’s television holdings grew and eventually developed into Telesistema Mexicano which would later be renamed Televisa. Mr O’Farrill would later manage and then become Chairman of the Board of this company. In 1969, the O Farrill’s established a newspaper company which distributed the newspaper ‘Novedades’. They also launched ‘The News’, which would become one of Latin America’s largest distributing English language dailies. During his career he sat on the boards of a number of corporations, including RCA Victor de Mexico and Sears Roebuck de Mexico. From 1962-1963 he served as President of the Inter-American Press Association. He was also a founding member of the Mexican Council of Businessmen and was appointed Honorary Consul of Ireland in Mexico, a role he held for over twenty years.

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