Garza and his brother Roberto grew the company into a conglomerate and instituted various innovations including benefits and social services for employees.

Garza's inspiration for founding ITESM came from his experience at MIT, as well as the desire to decrease Mexico's dependence on foreign expert help.

His paternal grandfather, Juan de la Garza Martinez, was mayor of Monterrey in the mid 19th century, building the Templo del Roble church in 1853.

[7] He attended primary school at the Colegio de San Juan in Saltillo, Coahuila, two hours away from the family home.

[6] Their religious background also led the family to a history of philanthropy, especially supporting hospices such as Melitón Villareal and León Ortigosa in Monterrey, which Eugenio continued later in his life.

[9] This disaster was followed shortly after by the Mexican Revolution, which required the family to leave Mexico in 1913 and seek asylum in the United States, living in Brownsville and St.

[5] Garza's career was focused on the brewery, which he eventually directed and grew into a conglomerate called Grupo Valores Industriales, S.A.

[15] The brothers also worked to diversify the company getting into the production of raw materials and packaging, changing the name to Grupo Monterrey.

[5] Garza and his brother continued and expanded on policies of his father in regards to worker welfare, providing social service and other benefits as well as cutting the work day down from the normal twelve hours to nine.

[11][19] Two years after starting work with the company, the two brothers began the Sociedad Cuauhtémoc y Famosa, open to workers and managers of the enterprise.

[5][19] In 1957, this organization created the Colonia Cuauhtémoc, a housing development for workers with subsidized mortgages offered by the company, which resulted in 334 homes over forty hectares.

The project led to the creation of a program to help finance worker home construction which was reorganized in 1972 as the Patrimonio de Vivienda del Grupo Industrial.

[5][20] As part of the Sociedad Cuauhtémoc y Famosa, he established the radio station XET as well as Televisión Independiente de México.

[26] Politically motivated businessmen allied with Echeverría were interested in a control over the Cadena García Valseca, which published thirty seven local newspapers in Mexico.

Garza was against this move on economic and political grounds and offered the publishing group financing to stay solvent and resist takeovers by those sympathetic to the government.

[28] Garza founded the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education with the aim of forming highly qualified administrators and technical workers in Mexico, decreasing Mexican businesses' dependency of foreign experts.

[11][29] His first project in this area was the creation of the Escuela Politécnica Cuauhtémoc, which provided elementary and high school education along with technical skills.

The need for a university level institution seemed more urgent with the outbreak of World War II among countries that normally provided expertise in Mexico.

Another issue was that the state and federal authorities refounded the University of Nuevo León, but there were political conflicts in its operation, which Garza wanted to avoid.

[2][5][29] The federal government publicly declared that it would respect private educational initiatives, which was crucial for certification purposes and the organization's incorporation as a civil association.

[18] An investigation in 2011 by the Excélsior newspaper into government records at the time showed that the Echeverría administration was aware of a plot by the group to kidnap Garza for a year and a half before it occurred but did not take action.