 The "New York Times" has noted that Martínez's hometown, Monterrey, “is home to some of Mexico’s largest industrial companies,” with power being “heavily concentrated among businessmen in the so-called Group of 10, a club that includes the Sada family.” Although Martínez “was not a part of that circle, he has cultivated deep connections to it,” helping the Sadas in 2004, for example, when one of their firms went bankrupt, and, later, becoming involved in the bankruptcy of the Sada-owned firm Vitro.According to one source, Martínez's “paternal great great grandmother was the sister of the paternal grandfather of Adrian Sada.”

“As a young man,” according to the "New York Times", Martínez “was a member of Regnum Christi, an evangelical group related to the Legionaries of Christ, an influential Roman Catholic order in Mexico that includes among its benefactors the billionaire Carlos Slim.” After earning a degree in electrical engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM or Tec de Monterrey), he “moved to Rome to study philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University and considered becoming a priest.” He soon decided, however, that he did not have a clerical vocation, and instead obtained a loan from a friend's father in order to study at Harvard Business School.There he excelled as a student, made important connections, and earned an MBA.