Alejandro Junco de la Vega, architect of one of the most powerful newspaper conglomerates in Latin America, has been named the 1993-94 College of Communication Outstanding Alumnus.

Junco earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin. He hired one of his former University of Texas at Austin journalism professors, Mary Gardner, to train his reporters in journalistic techniques and ethics.

Junco has spent his professional career exposing corruption in his native Mexico and working to heighten the political awareness of Mexican citizens through his dailies in Mexico's three largest cities: Mexico City (Reforma), Guadalajara (Mural) and Monterrey (El Norte). With Gardner as his guiding spirit Junco prohibited his reporters from taking gifts from government officials and selling advertisements to subjects of their articles as was common practice at most Mexican newspapers.

Aside from his accomplishments in establishing an independent press Junco has opened greater access to the electronic information industry in Mexico. His dailiesdiversified their services to include the delivery of electronic information to computer subscribers through his company, Infosel, which also provides real-time financial information to the investment planners in Mexico and on Wall Street. Junco's company also launched a new Internet strategy that has made it the largest web access provider in Mexico and the most important Internet content provider in Latin America. He plans to expand his enterprise to provide more electronic commerce services to the people of Mexico.

Despite numerous setbacks and increasing danger to his journalists Junco and his defiant editorial practices have raised the quality of Mexican journalism and increased public awareness and expectation. Many other Mexican publications are now following his example.