Roberto Murray Meza – Entrepreneur Enticed by Politics

As the Nationalist Republican Alliance struggles to recover from its historic loss in the March presidential race, its members are seeking a leader who can breathe new life into the party known as ARENA.

One possibility is charismatic beer magnate and philanthropist Roberto “Bobby” Murray Meza. The 62-year-old Murray is a long-time ARENA stalwart but a different breed from its old guard. Local political analysts say that his reputation as a pragmatic executive, his advocacy of corporate social responsibility and his modern views of the evolving political landscape in El Salvador are what ARENA needs to reinvent itself. When serving on ARENA’S directorate a few years ago, Murray made it clear that he opposed the authoritarian tradition of party politicians and disavowed ties with death squads during the 1980s civil war.

Within the deeply polarized party, Murray – despite his criticisms – is considered a unifying figure. Along with prominent business leaders Ricardo Poma and Roberto Kriete, Murray is part of the most influential, behind-the-scenes political forces. But the wealthy executives, dubbed the three Rs, seldom debate or talk politics in public. 

In a gesture that defied his more conservative party cohorts, Murray, who sports a military-issue crew cut, recently spoke out against the political divisions that plague Central American countries. He further welcomed the start of a new era in El Salvador under a consensus-seeking Mauricio Funes, the talk-show host and leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front candidate who won the presidency in March.

During that race, Murray criticized ARENA for running a negative campaign, instead of focusing on solutions to the problems facing voters. After ARENA’S defeat in the election, he invited Funes to start talks with the private sector. 

Murray was educated in the United States, studying economics at Yale University and earning two master’s degrees, one in literature from Middlebury College and an MBA from Harvard. His family wealth comes from coffee production, automotive imports and especially beer. Murray himself was in charge of the family brewery, La Constancia, for 25 years. Family holdings, Agrisal, include real estate, hospitality and agriculture. Murray said he believes in reinventing business, citing his grandfather Rafael Meza, who wrote after his first ventures failed: “Die? No one has a right to die. But to live again, yes.”

Murray spends time and money on philanthropy. He is the president of the Business Foundation for Social Action, and one of his pet projects is Future Kids, a pilot educational program to help youth develop digital technology skills.

But for all his qualifications, the question remains: Will he run in 2013?

In the past, Murray has opted to sit out the presidential elections, even though former presidents Francisco Flores and Alfredo Cristiani urged him to run. A recent poll showed most Salvadorans viewed Murray as more popular than Rodrigo Avila, the former police chief who lost to Funes in the 2009 race. — Ricardo Castillo Argüello