Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil

Fernando Henrique Cardoso was President of the Federative Republic of Brazil for two successive mandates, winning both elections by an absolute majority. He recently stepped down as President of the Club of Madrid, handing over to Ricardo Lagos in late March. 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, democracy, and state reform. Building on this successful intellectual and academic career, Mr. Cardoso became deeply involved in Brazil's struggle for democracy to overcome the authoritarian military regime. Elected Senator in 1982, he was a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). He also served as Minister of Foreign Relations and Minister of Finance.

Among his current functions, Fernando Henrique Cardoso is Chairman of the Club of Madrid and co-Chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, and of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Besides, he is Professor "at large" at Brown University, Providence, and holder of the "Cultures of the South" chair at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. He recently presided over the United Nations Panel of Eminent Personalities on the relationship between this organization and civil society and coordinated the working group in charge of reviewing the Ibero-American Summitry process and presented the Cardoso Report.

He received many honours such as the "Prince of Asturias Award of International Cooperation 2000", the UNDP's 2002 inaugural "Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development" and the "J. William Fullbright Prize for International Understanding" (2003).