Rafael Rangel Sostmann (; born 14 August 1941) is a Mexican engineer and academic who served as president of the

Monterrey Institute of Technology Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM; ), also known as Technological Institute of Monterrey () or just Tec, is aresearch university based in Monterrey, Mexico, which has grown to include 35 campuses located across 25 cit ...

(ITESM) from 1985 to 2011. He is a recipient of several honorary degrees, awarded, among others, by

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

(2008), the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

(2003),

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

(2004) and the

Thunderbird School of Global Management The Thunderbird School of Global Management (or simply Thunderbird) is a global leadership, management, and business school at Arizona State University, a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was founded in 1946 as an i ...

(2009); serves in the board of the

World Bank Institute The World Bank Institute is the capacity building branch of the World Bank. It provides learning programs, policy advice and technical assistance to policy makers, government and non-government agencies, and development practitioners of developing c ...

and

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

; and he is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Education Systems at the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

. He announced his retirement as rector of the ITESM on June 21, 2010. On September 12, 2011, Salvador Alva Gómez was announced as the next rector of the

(ITESM).

Biography

Rangel was born in

Parral, Chihuahua Hidalgo del Parral is a city and seat of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located in the southern part of the state, from the state capital, the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua. As of 2015, the city ...

, into a family formed by Rafael Rangel Romo, a mining engineer from

Aguascalientes Aguascalientes, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Aguascalientes, is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. At 22°N and with an average altitude of above sea level it is pre ...

and co-proprietor of (a flour mill) and Josefina Sostmann, he has a sister Josefina Rangel Sostman who is a painter. He undertook his secondary and preparatory studies in Parral at ''Instituto Regional'', a school managed by the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, and later moved to

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

to enroll at the Monterrey Institute of Technology. At Tech he imposed a national record in the 400 meters dash at the age of 22 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical and

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

in 1965. After his graduation he moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where he completed a master's degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 1966 and worked for two years as a development engineer for

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automa ...

, in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, before returning to Mexico and rejoining his alma mater in 1968 as an assistant professor. In Mexico, he lectured on

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

, machine instrumentation, and trained staff for the local industry before marrying Margaret “Peggy” Marshall, daughter of Dr. W. Robert Marshall, Jr., dean of engineering of UW–Madison, on 25 January 1969. He went back to UW–Madison to complete his doctorate degree, which was awarded in 1973. Back in Mexico, he rejoined the Tech as an associate director of the recently created Querétaro campus. Two years later, in 1975, he was appointed director and served in the post until 1979, when he was promoted to vice-rector for the central region, in charge of seven campuses. After the resignation of

Fernando García Roel Fernando García Roel (14 August 1921 – 26 February 2009) was a Mexican chemical engineer. He served as the second rector of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM, 1960–1984). García Roel was born in Monterr ...

in 1984, he was appointed rector of the institute, at the age of 43. After 26 years as rector, on 21 June 2010, he announced his retirement.

Biography

References

See also