Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León is the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Professor in the field of International Economics and Politics, professor adjunct of forestry and environmental studies at Yale University, and the former president of Mexico (1994-2000).
Zedillo serves on the High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, on the World Bank’s Commission on Growth and Development, on the High Level Task Force on Climate Change organized by the Club de Madrid and the United Nations Foundation, and the Commission on Education for Professionals in Development Policy and Practice. He is a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum; the Trilateral Commission; the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations; the board of directors of the Institute for International Economics; the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group; and the Honorary Council of the Evian Group. He holds decorations from the Governments of 32 countries and is the recipient of honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard Universities, the University of Miami and the University of Massachusetts. He is the recipient of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom from Fear Award; the Gold Insigne of the Council of the Americas; the Tribuna Americana Award of the Casa de America of Madrid; the Berkeley Medal, UC Berkeley’s highest honor; and the 2006 Sustainable Development Leadership Award presented by the Energy Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the School of Economics of the Natìonal Polytechnic Institute in Mexico and an MA and PhD at Yale University.