Agustín Otero Monsegur
Agustín Otero Monsegur leads OM Invest, the office that manages his family’s investments. He also serves on the boards of San Miguel and Ganagrin. His work spans agricultural businesses, investments and decisions concerning a family fortune whose origins are closely connected to Argentine banking.
The family name became associated with Banco Francés, where it held a stake sold to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya during the 1990s. For subsequent generations, that sale opened a different chapter: choosing which businesses to invest in and how to participate in them.
Agustín studied business economics at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and earned an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. His career included an investment fund, an internet company and positions at an industrial multinational before he concentrated on OM Invest.
In 2023, Bloomberg Línea included him among Latin America’s 500 most influential people. His name, however, remains better known within investment circles than outside them.
His early roles
One of his first positions was as an analyst at Innova, a private equity fund. There, he evaluated investments and became involved with Referente.com, a technology company he later led as CEO and president.
The experience allowed him to see a business from two perspectives: that of an investor deciding where to allocate capital and that of an executive responsible for running a company. At Referente.com, he held operational responsibilities alongside his role in board decisions.
In 2002, he joined the board of Ganagrin, the agricultural business associated with his family. Between that year and 2004, he also served as its finance manager.
His early work therefore combined markedly different activities: an internet company on one side and an agricultural operation on the other. Both experiences would inform his subsequent investment work.
A period in the United States and Europe
He later completed his MBA at Darden. His training continued at United Technologies, the US industrial conglomerate, where he entered a finance and operations leadership program.
Between 2006 and 2008, he worked as strategy and new business manager for Spain and Portugal. The position placed him within an organization whose procedures, budgets and responsibilities differed from those of a family business.
That period added management experience to his background in investment and finance. He subsequently returned his focus to businesses associated with his family.
At OM Invest, he manages investments and assesses opportunities. The office brings those responsibilities together, providing continuity beyond any individual transaction or company.
San Miguel and the lemon business
Since 2009, he has served on the board of San Miguel, the citrus company founded in Tucumán that developed an international business around lemons.
Its activities extend beyond selling fresh fruit. It also produces juices, essential oils and dehydrated peel used by food and beverage manufacturers.
The Otero Monsegur family belongs to the company’s core shareholder group alongside other family investors. For Agustín, the board is where he participates in decisions concerning investment, strategy and business development.
That role differs from daily management. Executives run operations, while directors participate in broader decisions and oversee their implementation. His career has included both positions, from managing Ganagrin’s finances to leading Referente.com.
San Miguel also keeps him involved with the demands of a business selling internationally. Investment decisions must account for agricultural production, industrial processing and the conditions required to reach overseas customers.
Managing family wealth
Selling the stake in Banco Francés did not end the family’s business activities. It changed the industries in which it participated and the way it organized its investments.
OM Invest supports that continuity. Agustín combines wealth management with involvement in companies where the family is a shareholder.
He has also been involved with CIPPEC, the public policy research organization. His activities therefore bring together investments, board positions and discussions about Argentina’s economy.
His career has not followed a single industry. It has taken him through technology, finance, a multinational and agriculture. Today, those experiences come together in a practical responsibility: deciding where to invest and working with companies after the capital has been committed.
