Former president of Mexico Vicente Fox to deliver Leopold Lecture

Vicente Fox, who served as the 55th president of Mexico, will deliver the 29th annual Richard W. Leopold Lecture at Northwestern University. 

The lecture, “Perspectives and Challenges in U.S.-Mexico Relationships,” will take place at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St., on the Evanston campus. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. 

Geraldo Cadava, associate professor of history in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern, will moderate the Q&A following the lecture. The event is free and open to the public. Visit nbo.universitytickets.com for tickets.

Tickets are required and must be shown at the door. 

Fox served as president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. He ran for and was elected president on the National Action Party ticket, making him the first president elected from an opposition party since 1910, thus becoming the first presidential candidate in 71 years to defeat the Institutional Revolutionary Party. 

Since leaving the presidency, Fox has been involved in public speaking and the development of the Vicente Fox Center of Studies, Library and Museum. In addition, he is actively involved in encouraging leadership and creating opportunities for those less fortunate through his organization Centro Fox. He also has been a vocal critic of President Trump, particularly his efforts to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. 

Vicente Fox Quesada grew up at Rancho San Cristobal in Guanajuato. He studied business administration at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and later he received a Top Management Diploma from Harvard Business School. In 1964, he joined the Coca-Cola Company in Mexico, eventually becoming president of the company for Mexico and Latin America.