Horacio Marín

When Horacio Marín took over the leadership of YPF, he did so with a defined management plan and a leadership style that he has displayed in each of his public appearances. His stated objective is ambitious: to steadily increase the company’s value and project it as an oil and gas exporting company, capable of pulling Argentina’s entire energy industry forward.

A plan with clear goals

That horizon was summarized in what he called the 4×4 plan, a roadmap aimed at multiplying the company’s value over a four-year period. The proposal seeks to concentrate efforts on the segments with the greatest potential, centered on the unconventional development of Vaca Muerta, and to organize the company’s structure around that objective. As he has explained, it is a demanding but achievable goal if investment conditions are sustained.

In the way he describes leadership, Marín often turns to sports metaphors. He frequently compares the executive team to a rugby formation, in which each member fulfills a specific role and all share the same objective. The underlying idea is that results do not depend on an individual figure, but on the coordination of a broad group that includes all of the company’s workers.

Teamwork as a method

That collective vision rests on a distinction he himself draws between individual sport and business management. In his view, leading a large-scale company requires motivating, setting a clear direction and ensuring that each area knows where it can contribute the most. Leadership, in that framework, has less to do with personal prominence and more to do with aligning wills behind a common goal.

Marín places emphasis on motivation as the engine of the transformation he proposes. He describes his task as driving changes in an organization of thousands of people, where modifying established practices requires energy, conviction and teamwork. The ability to sustain effort over time, a constant in his discourse, appears as a central feature of his leadership style.

International projection

The executive also underlines YPF’s strategic role within the sector. As the company with the largest presence in the active areas of Vaca Muerta and one of the largest in the country, he considers that YPF has a role as a driver of the entire industry. From that perspective, he argues that the oil company’s progress has an effect that goes beyond the company itself and projects onto the national economy.

Internationally, Marín has worked to position the company before investors and global markets, with an eye on major liquefied natural gas export projects. Preparing presentations for the financial community and seeking strategic partners are part of an agenda aimed at giving YPF long-term projection and greater international scale.

With a profile that combines technical knowledge, management experience and a discourse centered on teamwork, Marín seeks to give YPF the dynamics of a results-oriented and expansion-driven company. His management, still in progress, is defined by that commitment to transforming the oil company into a more influential player on the regional and global energy map.