Fernando Henrique Cardoso

President of Brazil (1995 - 2003)

One of the most important global thinkers by Foreign Policy.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso speaker, palestrante, keynote
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Fernando Henrique Cardoso was President of the Federative Republic of Brazil from January 1995 to January 2003, winning two elections by an absolute majority. Since 1960, he was one of the most influential figures in the analysis of large-scale social change, international development, dependency and democracy.

President Cardoso built on a successful academic career to become involved in Brazil’s struggle for democracy to overcome its authoritarian military regime (1964-85). He was elected Senator in 1982, and he was a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). He served as Minister of Foreign Relations from 1992-93 and Minister of Finance from 1993-94.

During his first mandate, he kept inflation and the currency stable, he embarked on a privatization plan and put an end to the monopolies in the hydrocarbon and telecommunications sectors. In May 1997, he got parliamentary support to modify the Constitution and introduce the re-election of executive offices, which enabled him to stand for re-election. After winning again in the 1998 elections, Fernando Henrique Cardoso became the first president to be re-elected in the history of Brazil.

Despite the Russian and Asian economic crisis of 1998, having devalued the currency by 90% in 1999 and the difficulties created in 2000 by overseas affairs, like the Argentine crisis, Cardoso’s management allowed Brazil to close 2000 with growth of 4% and inflation at 5.5%. Unemployment fell from 7.6% in 1999 to 6.8% in 2000

Fernando Henrique Cardoso now serves as President of the United Nations Panel of Eminent Personalities on the revitalisation of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He is also Chairman of the Club of Madrid, 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.

He 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. Fernando Henrique Cardoso also serves as a Member of the United Nations High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

President Cardoso paved the way for the economic prosperity that has led to Brazil becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world during his two terms in office. An accomplished sociologist, professor and politician, he is a world leading speaker on encouraging economic growth and the global trade network.

Latin American politics and economy.

Foreign Relations.

Public government.

Leadership.

Management.

Xadrez Internacional e Social-Democracia

Xadrez Internacional reúne análises recentes sobre os efeitos das transformações económicas e políticas globais no Brasil e na América Latina. O tema da democracia, central na obra de Fernando Henrique Cardoso, articula-se aqui com as suas reflexões sobre o crescimento económico, o desenvolvimento e as relações mundiais de poder.

Xadrez Internacional e Social-Democracia

Cartas a Um Jovem Político Para construir um país melhor

«Nestas cartas procurei dividir com o leitor, especialmente os mais jovens, experiências que vivi em meus vinte e sete anos de política, lições que aprendi dentro e fora do governo e conhecimentos que fui adquirindo ao longo da vida.» Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Cartas a Um Jovem Político Para construir um país melhor

The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir

Fernando Henrique Cardoso received a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to be the new Finance Minister of Brazil. As he put the phone down and stared into the darkness of his hotel room, he feared he'd been handed a political death sentence. The year was 1993, and he would be responsible for an economy that had had seven different currencies in the previous eight years to cope with inflation that had run at 3000 percent a year. Brazil had a habit of chewing up finance ministers with the ferocity of an Amazon piranha.
This was just one of the turns in a largely unscripted and sometimes unwanted political career. In exile during the harshest period of the junta that ruled Brazil for twenty years, Cardoso started his political life with a tentative run for the Federal Senate in 1978. Within fifteen years, and despite himself, this former sociologist was running the country.

And what a country! Brazil, it is often said, is on the edge of modernity, striding with one foot in mid-air towards the future, the other still rooted deep in a traditional past. It is a land of sophisticated music and brutal gold-digging, of the next global superpower and the last old-time coffee plantations. It is gloriously ungovernable, irrepressibly attractive, and home to the family, friends and extraordinary life of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. This is his story and his love song to his country.

The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir

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