Fernando Henrique Cardoso was President of the Federative Republic of Brazil from January 1995 to January 2003, winning two elections by an absolute majority.
Building on a successful academic career, he became deeply involved in Brazil's struggle for democracy to overcome its authoritarian military regime (1964-1985).
Elected Senator in 1982, he was a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB).
Mr. Cardoso served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1992-93 and Minister of Finance from 1993-94.
He is now Chairman of the Club of Madrid and co-Chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue. In addition, he is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation and of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
Mr. Cardoso serves as a professor-at-large at Brown University — and is the holder of the “Cultures of the South” chair at the Library of Congress.
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1931, he is married, with three children, and lives in São Paulo.
