David Garza: We want the Tec to make an impact on society

“As an education group, we’re looking to transform the lives of people and communities through education.”

Speaking at the start of the August-December 2025 semester, David Garza Salazar, President of the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group, shares the challenges and goals of the group’s institutions: Tec de Monterrey, Tecmilenio, and TecSalud.

In an interview with CONECTA, Garza Salazar remarks that the education group aims to be as relevant to society in the current global environment, marked by issues such as political polarization, climate crisis, and accelerated technological disruption, as it was upon its founding 82 years ago.

“We’re paying attention and figuring out what our role as an education group should be in these contexts. This also means we can leverage opportunities that help drive our community to generate solutions for the world of today and tomorrow.”

Tec de Monterrey: Innovation and global prestige

David Garza tells CONECTA that Tec de Monterrey is often referred to as a university of excellence characterized by innovation at the international forums in which his role allows him to participate.

“It’s an innovative institution that is highly capable of realizing complex projects, is committed to the country’s development, and has a great deal of credibility in different sectors of society,” sums up Garza.

He adds that academic excellence and seeking more applied research opportunities and greater global prestige are clear goals for the institution, which help to boost the impact that its community of students, faculty, and alumni can make through their talent.

Garza explains that the Tec aims to be a facilitator which helps people of vision and talent to imagine and create new solutions to transform our society.

“Historically speaking, we now enjoy the highest employability rates we’ve ever had,” says Garza when speaking about the talent of Tec alumni.

The most recent study shows that 89% of graduates hold jobs three months after having left the university. 

“As an educational institution, as a university, we want to make an impact on society. If that impact is amplified and goes beyond Mexico’s borders, we’ll have found an even better way to achieve that ambition,” he says.

“We want to make an impact on society. If that impact is amplified and goes beyond our borders, we’ll have found an even better way to achieve that goal.”

“Last year, we hired about 180 professors. One out of every three of those comes from the top 200 universities around the world,” he says, by way of example, when talking about this search to bolster the institution’s outstanding academic talent.

Garza is currently Chair of the U21 global university network, and the Tec is part of other international organizations such as the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and various working groups of the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

He has also been a board member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

The education group president also mentions that learning careful and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence is an important part of the Tec’s current responsibilities.

This year, the institution launched the Artificial Intelligence Global Education Network (AIGEN), as well as Skills Studio, an AI solutions tool that allows professors to generate teaching materials. 

Garza also remarked that this academic cycle, the Tec will be reinforcing its Continuing Education area (with lifelong learning courses), further promoting its Mexico City campuses, and celebrating 50 years of the Querétaro and San Luis Potosí campuses, as well as the institution’s 82nd anniversary.

Tecmilenio: Evolution and flexibility

Concerning Tecmilenio university, Garza highlighted how it has evolved and extended its scope and vision. 

“We’re extending it to new locations,” he stresses.

Tecmilenio has increased its physical presence, going from 30 to 42 educational campuses in Mexico in just the past five years.

Moreover, Garza highlights how the university has also amplified its impact through flexible models.

“How has it extended its reach? It’s done so by also innovating on its educational models. We’re also starting with the new MAPS model, a flexible educational model to reach more people.”

Over the past five years, the institution has gone from 12,000 to over 70,000 students enrolled on Continuing Education courses.

It has also grown through international partnerships such as those forged with institutions like Arizona State University and the University of Lima.
 

“As an education group, we’re looking to transform the lives of people and communities through education.”

TecSalud: Applied research and international collaboration

TecSalud is the health system of the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group, which includes the Zambrano Hellion and San José hospitals in Nuevo León and 15 TecSalud Network affiliated hospitals in different parts of Mexico. 

Garza tells CONECTA how TecSalud played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic (with clinical protocols and outstanding results) and how it has consolidated itself as an academic health center with first-class healthcare and research.

“TecSalud has become significantly stronger,” stresses Garza, highlighting aspects such as the historic OriGen project, which is about to conclude with the compilation of data from 100,000 Mexicans that will be used to sequence the Mexican genome. 

“These results may serve for new treatments, new medicines, and have an impact on millions of people,” he explains.

Garza also underscores other global healthcare and research partnerships forged by TecSalud with institutions such as the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard and the Texas Children’s Hospital.

He also emphasizes highly complex medical operations such as the first implant of a self-expanding percutaneous pulmonary valve or the recent heart transplant performed on a 22-year-old patient.

Finally, he recounts the advances made on the building of the new Health Sciences campus, which will connect to the Zambrano Hellion Hospital for the benefit of Tec de Monterrey’s medical students.

Mission of the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group

David Garza acknowledges that the group’s most well-known institution is the oldest, Tec de Monterrey, which will celebrate 82 years of existence on September 6.

Tecmilenio was founded in 2002 and TecSalud began to be known as such after the Zambrano Hellion Hospital was created in 2012.

“Over those decades, we’d been operating and presenting ourselves as Tecnológico de Monterrey, the institution that gave rise to where we stand today, which is perhaps what is most well-known nationally and internationally,” he says.

“However, when we started thinking about our future plans and discussing these ambitions to make a greater impact on our society, we realized that our ambitions could be better achieved by having each of these institutions specialize.”

Thus emerged the term that now encompasses Tec de Monterrey, Tecmilenio (founded in 2002), and TecSalud: the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group. 

“This group’s institutions are committed to advancing as fast as possible toward making this impact on society. The vision is already there. What do we have to do now? We have to take action, maintain its execution,” concludes Garza.

 

SEE THE 2030 ROADMAP VIDEO HERE:

LEE TAMBIÉN: