Former president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, will present an address as part of the Adlai E. Stevenson Memorial Lecture Series at 7:30 p.m. March 23, in Westbrook Auditorium on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. His talk is titled “Better Growth or Better Climate: Do We Need to Choose?” and is free and open to the public. There will be a master class for the University communities at 3 p.m. that same day in the Bone Student Center Circus Room on the Illinois State University campus.
Calderón served as president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012. He is internationally recognized as a president who strengthened the rule of law and made possible the economic recovery of Mexico following the world economic crisis. During his tenure, Mexico became one of the world’s biggest exporters, accounting for 60 percent of the total manufacturing exports in Latin America and the Caribbean. When he took office in 2006, Mexico was the ninth largest exporter of vehicles worldwide; at the end of Calderón’s tenure, Mexico had moved up to fourth position.
He hosted and chaired the G-20 Summit of Leaders, the most important forum of heads of state and government. He also chaired the U.N. Conference on Climate Change COP16 in 2010. He was named “Statesman of the Year” by the World Economic Forum and considered one of Time Magazine’s “100 most influential people” in 2010. He has received the Teddy Roosevelt Award for the Environment, the GLOBE Award from the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment, and the International Star of Energy Efficiency Award.
Currently he is a member of the advisory council of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, member of the board of the World Resources Institute, and chairman of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Calderón is founder and president of the Sustainable Human Development Foundation, where he works to analyze and propose viable policy alternatives for Mexico and promote low-carbon development alternatives for the world.
Calderón holds a law degree from the Escuela Libre de Derecho and a master’s degree in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The Stevenson Lecture Series was established by a group of local civic leaders to honor the legacy of Bloomington native Adlai E. Stevenson II, former governor of Illinois and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, after his death in 1965. The series is co-hosted by Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan.
