Fox Quesada, Vicente, << fahks kay SAH thah, bee THAYN tay >> (1942-…), served as president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. Fox represented the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party), also known as PAN. He succeeded Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party), also known as the PRI. The PRI had ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000.
Fox was born on July 2, 1942, in Mexico City. He spent his childhood in San Francisco del Rincon, Mexico. He studied business administration at Ibero-American University in Mexico. In 1964, he became a salesman for the Coca-Cola Company in Mexico. He worked his way up to serve as Coke’s chief executive in Mexico from 1975 to 1979. In 1979, Fox left Coke to run a family business with his brothers. His business experiences convinced him of the need for political reform.
Fox served in Mexico’s Congress from 1988 to 1991. In 1991, he ran for governor of the state of Guanajuato but lost. He won the governorship in 1995 and served until 1999, when he began his presidential campaign.
During his presidency, Fox reinforced the importance of the Mexican judiciary, especially the Supreme Court of Justice, Mexico’s highest court. He also enacted a law requiring government agencies to answer questions about their performance. During Fox’s presidency, the percentage of Mexicans living in poverty declined for the first time in many years. However, Fox failed to achieve many of his proposed reforms, including reforming the tax system. Despite Fox’s personal popularity, many Mexicans were unsatisfied with his performance as president.
