Mauricio Macri was born in Tandil, in the province of Buenos Aires, on February 8th, 1959. He has three daughters and one son.
He graduated in Civil Engineering at Universidad Católica Argentina and completed his education studying Economy and Finance in Argentina and abroad.
He began his career in the private sector, working in different companies related to the construction and automobile industry.
His public activity began in 1995 when he was elected president of Club Atlético Boca Juniors, one of the two most important and popular football clubs in Argentina. In 1999, he received more than 86 per cent of the votes and was reelected for a second 4-year period. Then, in December 2003, he was elected president of the club once more and in 2007 he finally decided to resign to his position.
In 2001, in the face of the serious political and institutional crisis the country was undergoing, Macri, along with a group of citizens, decided to create Fundación Creer y Crecer (To Believe and To Create Foundation), an organization that aimed at working in the development, design and implementation of public policies to find solutions for the problems of the City of Buenos Aires and the Republic of Argentina.
After a while, Macri and other people, who shared his vision of changing the reality of the country, founded a political party that they decided to call Compromiso para el Cambio (Commitment to Change), reflecting in this name the spirit behind it.
In August 2003, Mauricio Macri ran for Mayor of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was his running mate. In spite of winning in the first round with more than 37 per cent of the votes of the electorate, he was defeated in the runoff election, receiving 46.5 per cent of the votes.
In this context, Compromiso para el Cambio became the main opposition force in the City of Buenos Aires. With deputy representatives in the Congress and the largest bloc of the Legislature of Buenos Aires, in 2004 and beginning of 2005, Mauricio devoted himself to two main tasks: providing important laws through his deputy representatives and controlling the administration of the Mayor of the city.
In July 2005, Mauricio, as president of Compromiso para el Cambio, created a strategic coalition with political party Recrear Argentina for the elections that were to be held that year, in October. The coalition, called Propuesta Republicana (PRO, as per its acronym in Spanish) was presented in the districts of the Federal Capital and in the province of Buenos Aires.
As a national deputy, Mauricio Macri led the PRO slate in the Federal Capital, joined by Marcos Peña as first candidate for the position of City Legislator. In October 23rd, 2007, PRO received the votes of 610.898 citizens, representing 34.1 per cent of the electorate of the City of Buenos Aires, thus winning 6 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress and 13 in the Legislature of Buenos Aires. It was the first time in history for a candidate to win in all electoral districts of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
From 2005 to 2007 he served as a national deputy of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
In July 2007, PRO took part again in the elections for Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires and district legislators in the Federal Capital District. The PRO slate in the Federal Capital was led by Mauricio Macri, as candidate for Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires, and Gabriela Michetti, as Vice-Mayor.
On Sunday, June 3rd, PRO received 45.6 per cent of the votes of the City of Buenos Aires electorate, in the first round. On June 24th, Mauricio Macri´s slate received 61 per cent of the votes of the electorate, thus defeating Daniel Filmus, the government-supported candidate, and winning the highest government position of the Federal Capital of Argentina.
Mauricio Macri is currently the Mayor of City of Buenos Aires.
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