Ernesto Zedillo is Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; Professor in the Field of International Economics and Politics; Professor of International and Area Studies; and Professor Adjunct of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He served as President of Mexico from 1994 to 2000.
He began his career with the Central Bank of Mexico, eventually becoming the Undersecretary of Budget for the National Government of Mexico before serving as Secretary of Economic Programming and the Budget. In 1992, Zedillo was appointed Secretary of Education.
Zedillo currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute; the 21st Century Advisory Council of the Berggruen Institute; and Co-Chair of the Inter-American Dialogue. He serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and is a member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders using their collective experience and influence for peace, justice, and human rights worldwide.
He has served on numerous international commissions, including as Vice Chair of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security with Kofi Annan (2010 – 2012), chair of the Global Development Network (2005 – 2011), Co-Chair of the Regional Migration Study Group (2010 – 2013) and Chair of the High Level Commission on Modernization of World Bank Group Governance (2008 – 2010).
He previously served on the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, as Chair of the Commission to recommend the future course of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as co-chair for the Partnership of the Americas Commission with Thomas Pickering, and as co-chair for the Commission on Drugs and Democracy with former Presidents Cardoso of Brazil and Gaviria of Colombia.
Zedillo is a Member of the G30 and the Board of Directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is a Distinguished Practitioner of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford and in 2011 he was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society.
Zedillo earned his Bachelor’s degree from the School of Economics of the Natìonal Polytechnic Institute in Mexico and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Yale University and holds honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard Universities; the University of Ghana; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and the University of Miami.
