Pemex Directors

Octavio Romero Oropeza - Director General

Romero Oropeza has a strong background in politics and is a long-time political ally of President López Obrador, with both hailing from Tabasco. Born in January 1959, he graduated university as an agronomist. Romero came to prominence as a National Council Member of the PRD between 1994 and 1999, where he focused on cutting back bureaucratic expenditures. This was his first involvement in the task of tackling corruption, a platform that would continue to define his professional career. He went on to become the Tabasco State Leader of the Sol Azteca, and in 1997 was the party’s losing candidate for mayor of Centro, Tabasco. Romero later became a Federal Deputy in the LVI Legislature of the Congress of Mexico, where he showed affinity with themes related to energy. When López Obrador was elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000, he named Romero to lead the city’s administrative office. Supervising the capital’s bureaucracy and once again focusing on rooting out corruption prepared him for his current role as head of Mexico’s national oil giant. His appointment has not gone without criticism, mostly directed at his background and personal connection to López Obrador. Regardless, Romero will oversee PEMEX as it ushers in a new era, with a mandate from López Obrador to increase production and make the NOC the lever that propels Mexico’s development.

Miguel Gerardo Breceda Lapeyre - Director General of PEMEX Transformación Industrial

Born in 1949, Miguel Gerardo Breceda Lapeyera is responsible for PEMEX’s combined midstream and downstream efforts as head of PEMEX Industrial Transformation. Breceda was previously a planning coordinator on several projects for the National Commission for Energy Saving (CONAE). He was also founder and coordinator of the Energy Program of the Economic Research Institute of UNAM and was an associate at the Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM). PEMEX’s latest business plan, outlined in 2019, put a heavy focus on Breceda’s department, tasking it with augmenting production of fuel and petrochemicals and enhancing marketing and supply of petroleum products. The vital Dos Bocas project will be a crucially important challenge that needs to be brought to a successful conclusion.

Javier Núñez López - Acting Operations Director of Procurement and Supply

Javier Núñez López, born in 1965, is the Acting Operations Director at PEMEX. Overseeing procurement and supply, Núñez is in charge of procuring goods and services for the NOC. This makes him directly involved in how ethically and profitably PEMEX will be able to operate, a task that poses a significant challenge. Like others appointed in 2018, he has a background in politics and has strong ties to López Obrador’s Morena party. He started his career as the Director of Management of Xalapa, Veracruz. Later, he was named Chief of Staff of the Congress in the state of Tabasco, where he went on to become Director General of Management for the Ministry of Health.

Marcos Manuel Herrería Alamina - Corporate Director of Management and Services

Marcos Manuel Herrería Alamina was appointed Corporate Director in 2018 and is in charge of the area of Management and Services. He has a strong background in administration, having worked with President López Obrador during the president's term as  Mayor of Mexico City. Herrería spent most of his professional career in the Federal District. He was Director General of the city’s Ministry of Finance under Miguel Ángel Mancera of the PRD. He also served as Private Secretary of the Head Official of the Federal District Government and as Administrative Coordinator of the district’s Attorney General’s Office.

Alberto Velázquez García - Chief Financial Officer / Corporate Director of Finance

Alberto Velázquez García has held a number of notable positions in both the private and public sectors, while also showing a fondness for academia, having taught at UNAM’s School of Economics, for instance. In the public sector, Velázquez was on the Federal Economic Competition Commission and was the Managing Director of the Ministry of Finance in Mexico City. In the private sector, he has worked as a consultant and financial adviser. He was an independent adviser focused on investment project structuring, restructuring and debt refinancing for Grupo Financiero Banorte. These themes have been marked as focal points in PEMEX’s Business Plan. 

Ulises Hernández Romano - Director General of PMI Comercio Internacional

Having worked for 20 years at PEMEX, Ulises Hernández Romano is the only insider on this list. Born in 1970, he has held positions including Deputy Director of Portfolio Management and Access to New Areas at PEP as well as Associate Managing Director of Deposits Geology at PEP. He holds a degree in engineering from UNAM and a doctorate in geology from the University of Reading. As the leader of PEMEX’s international trading arm, he will play an important role in commercializing Mexican hydrocarbons internationally.