Alfonso Romo is not a man afraid of a challenge.

The multimillionaire businessman, from the sprawling industrial city of Monterrey, was approached by his country’s veteran Leftist leader with a simple appeal: help me.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a household name in Mexico for decades, was running for the presidency for the third time. Amlo, as he is known, knew that his open admiration for Fidel Castro and scepticism about Nafta had the business community spooked. He realised that questioning contracts already signed to build the capital city’s new airport and privatise the country’s oil industry were worrying investors.

So he turned to Mr Romo, a spry 68-year-old whose biotech, agricultural, insurance and tobacco interests were estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.4 billion in the late 1990s. And for the past 18 months Mr Romo has criss-crossed the northern, Amlo-sceptic states selling his boss’s promises for a business-friendly, Leftist future.

He laughs when asked if it has been a tough sell.

“Every day our relations with the business community are getting better,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.