Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Former President of Brazil for two consecutive terms (1995-2002), Fernando Henrique Cardoso is currently president of the Instituto Fernando Henrique Cardoso (São Paulo, Brazil) and honorary president of the Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB). He was born in Rio de Janeiro, in 1931, and was married to the anthropologist Ruth Cardoso (1930-2008), with whom he had three children. A sociologist trained at the University of São Paulo, he emerged since the late 1960s as one of the most influential figures in the analysis of large-scale social change, international development, dependency and democracy. Elected Senator in 1982, he was a founding member of the Party of the Social Democracy (PSDB). He served as Minister of Foreign Relations in 1992-93 and Minister of Finance in 1993-94.Former Full Professor of Political Science, today Professor Emeritus at the University of São Paulo, he was professor at the universities of Santiago de Chile, California American (at Stanford and at Berkeley), of Cambridge (United Kingdom), of Paris-Nanterre, of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and at the Collège de France.