Fox, Vicente

Fox (Quesada), Vicente

Vicente Fox (left) delivering his acceptance speech after being sworn in as president of Mexico, …

(credit: Reuters/Corbis)

(born July 2, 1942, Mexico City, Mex.) President of Mexico (2000–06) whose election ended 71 years of uninterrupted rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He earned a degree in business administration from the Ibero-American University in Mexico City and later worked for the Coca-Cola Company, serving as its chief executive in Mexico (1975–79). In 1987 he joined the National Action Party (PAN) and the following year was elected to the national Chamber of Deputies. Elected governor of Guanajuato in 1995, he left the post in 1998 to focus on his national campaign. As president, he sought to improve relations with the United States and calm civil unrest in such areas as Chiapas.