Horacio Marín, the engineer behind the leadership of YPF
Horacio Marín llegó a la conducción de YPF después de más de tres décadas en la industria energética, con formación técnica en ingeniería química y experiencia clave en exploración, producción y desarrollo de Vaca Muerta.
Horacio Daniel Marín was born in La Plata on May 8, 1963, and built a career of more than three decades in the energy industry before becoming chairman and chief executive officer of YPF, Argentina’s main oil and gas company. His path combines solid technical training with extensive field experience in hydrocarbon exploration and production projects.
Education and early steps
Marín graduated as a chemical engineer from the National University of La Plata, the university in his hometown, which years later would distinguish him as an illustrious graduate. He then completed a master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas and an executive program at Stanford University, in the United States. That combination of engineering foundations and business training abroad helped define much of his professional profile.
His working life was linked for 35 years to Grupo Techint, where he joined in 1988 through the young professionals selection program. His first major project was El Tordillo, a field located in the San Jorge Gulf, in the province of Chubut. That work, as he has recounted on different occasions, enabled him to obtain the scholarship to study in Texas and consolidate his specialization in reservoirs.
Three decades in the industry
During the 1990s, Marín moved to the Venezuelan subsidiary of Tecpetrol, the group’s energy company, first as head of Reservoir Engineering and later as technical manager. Back in Argentina, he rose through the company: from manager to director and, in 2022, to president of Exploration and Production at Tecpetrol, the position he held before arriving at the national oil company.
Within the industry, his name became especially associated with the development of Vaca Muerta, where he led the gas project at the Fortín de Piedra field, in the province of Neuquén. That experience positioned him as one of the executives with the greatest practical knowledge of unconventional production in the country, a credential that would carry weight when he arrived at YPF.
Roots and arrival at YPF
The family component is also part of his personal story. Marín is married to Diana Alejandra Zamora and often mentions his family’s immigrant background: his mother arrived in Argentina by ship from Italy after the Second World War and settled in La Plata. From that story of effort and austerity, he says he drew a work philosophy based on perseverance and study, values he repeats when describing how he approaches professional challenges.
In late 2023, he was appointed chairman and CEO of YPF, a company with majority state ownership and thousands of employees across the country. For Marín, the engineer trained in La Plata and seasoned by three decades in the fields, the position represented the highest point of a career entirely dedicated to energy. Upon taking office, he addressed the staff from the La Plata refinery, in the same city where he had been born six decades earlier and where he had taken his first steps.
His profile thus brings together two complementary facets: that of the rigorous technical professional, with master’s degrees and international programs, and that of the long-serving executive who knows the business from the field to strategic planning. That combination is what defines, today, the man leading the most emblematic company in Argentina’s energy sector.
