Calderón, Felipe

Calderón (Hinojosa), Felipe (de Jesús)

(born Aug. 18, 1962, Morelia, Michoacán, Mex.) President of Mexico from 2006. Calderón studied law at the Free School of Law in Mexico City and in 2000 earned a master's degree at Harvard University. His father helped found the centre-right National Action Party (PAN) in 1939, and Calderón was active in the PAN from a young age. In 1993 he became the party's secretary-general and from 1996 to 1999 was the PAN president. In 2000 Vicente Fox won the presidential elections, bringing the PAN to national power for the first time. Calderón held several posts, including minister of energy (2003–04), and in 2005 he was named the PAN's presidential candidate. The following year he won the presidential elections by just 0.56 percent of the vote.