Larry Rubin

Larry Rubin (born August 31, 1974 in Mexico City, Mexico) is an American-Mexican businessman and political voice for the Mexico - US relationship who has lived in both sides of the border. He serves as Managing Partner of DHR International (a global executive search firm) in Mexico, is the President and Chairman of the Board of The American Society of Mexico, represents the United States Republican Party in Mexico, and writes as a columnist for Reforma, CNNExpansión and Forbes in Mexico. Rubin is often cited and written about in Mexican publications and has been featured in USA Today, Forbes and CNN (to name a few) as a businessman and expert on the US-Mexico bilateral relationship.

Larry (born Larrie David Rubin) commenced kindergarten and later completed his secondary education at the American School Foundation in Mexico City in 1993 before obtaining a degree in business administration at Universidad Anahuac Mexico, where he now serves as a professor.

While attending secondary school, Rubin commenced work as a sales distributor for Amway, notably growing a network of 0 to 1,000 distributors as a teenager. At 19, he started work for American Airlines (at the time, US Airways) as a check-in and baggage agent at the airport and he quickly grew through the ranks to later became the Country Manager for Mexico, a position for which he is known for growing the airline's national occupancy from 900 to 33,000 seats. He was responsible for the U.S. airline’s opening of new routes including Cancun, Cozumel and Mexico City. In these destinations, he worked with local businesses and government to provide funding in order to promote passenger travel in the U.S. and Canada. He also established routine working meetings between U.S. carriers and the U.S. government in Mexico. During this time, he was also elected as the first Vice President of the National Chamber of Air Transport (representing all U.S. carriers) and on the Board of Directors of CONCAMIN (the industrial chambers confederation) where he worked with government to lower costs for U.S. and foreign carriers and improve the working conditions of airline employees. Thereafter, Rubin became the General Director of Arizona based direct sales company Forever Living Products in Mexico and Practice Leader for Chicago based executive search firm Spencer Stuart. He gives classes at one of the largest Mexican universities, where he promotes U.S. cultural heritage. Additionally he writes columns in publications such as CNN, Forbes and Reforma. Today, Rubin is the Managing Partner for Chicago-based DHR International (a global executive search firm) in Mexico. He has been in the executive search industry for over 4 years placing many top officers in multinational companies. He has led American companies and organizations for 20 years.

From 1997 to 2008, Larry Rubin served in different capacities and became the youngest CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce, organization that represents U.S. businesses in the country. He also became Vice President of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America. At the Chamber he worked to ensure that U.S. businesses had better conditions and at the same time protect their businesses, plus helping them grow in Mexico. He worked with government including Congress so that they would legislate in favor of US investment in Mexico. He helped deter the passing of laws through the Lower House that would hamper several U.S. industries. He also worked closely with the executive branch to lower the percentage on a new tax being proposed that would cost U.S. businesses more. He advised government against pressing double taxation on investments in Mexico. In a broader effort, Rubin lobbied Congress for approval of a tax reform benefiting business, and during the Forum on Fiscal Reform pointed out that both private sector and other actors involved had already reached agreements on tax reform that were ignored by Congress. Larry also promoted laws that would benefit U.S. businesses such as the changes to IMSS. He worked together with the country’s leading business organization in the bilateral initiative SPP, where U.S. and Mexican businesses worked together with both governments to enact regulations and laws that would benefit both. He was part of the delegation that brought the Merida initiative into life where both President Bush and President Calderon signed this historic agreement impacting rule of law and fight against crime. Rubin was also vocal about the need for more security needed for U.S. businesses operating in Mexico and the need for Congress and the Executive branch to work together to resolve this important issue. Additionally Larry worked on regulation that would improve the flow of goods crossing both sides of the border, improving delivery times of goods and services. He worked hand-in-hand with customs and border patrol to make this benefit to U.S. consumers real. He signed an agreement with the Mexican government to assist as an organization in improving regulations making it easier for U.S. companies doing business in Mexico.

Uniting Mexican Presidential candidates in growing the commercial ties with the U.S.

In fact, Rubin is credited for uniting the three opposing presidential candidates in Mexico to reach a dialogue on the doing business with the U.S.—the first time and the only time the three Presidential candidates would agree to come together. There he also had Jose Angel Gurria, Secretary General for the OECD open dialogue with Chamber members. Additionally, Larry sat all presidential candidates with the U.S. business leaders and U.S. Chamber’s Tom Donohue to promote stronger ties between government and business.

Building a stronger American community in Mexico

Rubin is credited for turning the near-bankrupt American Chamber to one of the largest in the world during his tenure and growing its membership substantially. Larry was awarded the Chamber’s most distinguished commerce award in six different occasions thanks to his contributions to the overall commercial relationship between Mexico and the US.

Presently, Rubin serves as the President and Chairman of the Board of The American Society of Mexico. This non-profit and apolitical organization that was founded 75 years ago, serves to promote U.S. values in Mexico, and the US Republican Party in Mexico. Following Donald Trump's victory over the 2016 US Presidential Election, Rubin urged the Mexican government to strengthen diplomatic relations with the US during Trump presidency instead of "falling into a state of terror." In November he organized the largest apolitical election night in Mexico with thousands of people in attendance and hundreds of news outlets present.

For over a decade, Rubin has served as an advocate for comprehensive migration in the United States.

When the Sheraton Hotel was shut down by Mexican government for applying the Helms-Burton law in Mexico, Rubin came out in defense of this U.S. investor in Mexico and sat authorities down with this important chain to reopen their operation. It became a very visible situation where Larry took a leading role in solving this difficult issue. He had to negotiate with the federal government, since it had been so visible the Foreign Relations Secretary was involved. He also negotiated with local Mexico City officials, including the Mexico City Mayor, the Mexico City Secretary of Security and the head of the Municipality. After the hotel had been closed for one day, Rubin was able to work out that the Sheraton Hotel be re-opened and police then was removed from the front doors of the hotel.

Rubin was invited to be part of the US-Mexico Cultural Committee where different cultural projects were assessed. The committee brought down a number of U.S. artists to Mexico and also took Mexican artists to the U.S. This included Frida Kahlo’s exhibition in the U.S.

Other cultural events that he was responsible for included 4th of July cookouts, Thanksgiving dinners and other important U.S. holidays.

Additionally, Rubin worked with National Football League (NFL) senior officers to bring down/promote the first season NFL game in Mexico celebrated October 2005 in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca where Arizona Cardinals played against the San Francisco 49ers with 100,000 people in attendance.

By 2007, Rubin had made very public through a a survey done to the Mexican public where it was found that Mexico was one of the top nations of consumer piracy. It was important to bring awareness to this issue, since U.S. business was being hurt by the lack of enforcement in intellectual property rights (IPR).

As President of the American Society, Rubin was a very strong voice for energy reform in Mexico at a decisive time when oil price threatened to raise and thousands of jobs were on the line. Working together with a number of energy companies from the U.S. he was able to give specific recommendations to government. Energy reform was thus enacted in Mexico, benefiting many U.S. businesses.

Larry Rubin invited JW Marriott to Mexico where discussions ensued on how to grow his business more in the country and the region. The result of Marriott’s visit was that this hotel chain started growing aggressively in Mexico.

Larry began as the country’s youngest Rotary Club member, a worldwide organization that began in Evanston, Il. Additionally he also actively participates with Atlanta based Habitat for Humanity, which helps build homes for the needy and is also a Board member of the American organization United Way. Through his civic contributions, Larry has won a number of recognitions, but more importantly has been able to donate substantial funds to charitable organizations including schools for the blind, for people with mental disabilities, orphanages and retirement homes as well.

Larry has worked as the leader of Republicans in Mexico since 2004. Mexico is the country with more American expats living outside the U.S. He was first entrusted with getting more votes out for President George W. Bush in Mexico and was in charge of the visit made to Mexico by Bush, where they both toured important expat communities in Mexico City, San Miguel, Chapala and Guadalajara. After helping expand the vote from Americans to Republican candidates, Larry continued working in the other campaigns decisively. He was part of the important visit done by candidate John McCain to Mexico in 2008 and promoted the vote for Mitt Romney in 2012. His continued work for the campaigns has brought in awareness of the Republican values and has positively promoted the GOP principles throughout Mexico. Additionally this work promoting Republican candidates has been recognized in the U.S. by important publications done by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, among others.

In Winter of 2016, Rubin became a candidate for Ambassador of the United States to Mexico.[19]