Antonio Ortiz Mena is one of the outstanding Latin American economic policymakers of this century. In 12 years as Mexico's finance minister and 17 years as the president of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), as well as periods in other important posts in the Mexican government, Ortiz Mena has been involved in virtually all key economic challenges facing the region over the last 50 years.
A lawyer by training, with a master's degree in Latin American studies from the University of London, Ortiz Mena was president of Mexico's Social Security Institute from 1952 to 1958, and finance minister from 1958 to 1970. Taking over from Chilean Felipe Herrera, he headed the IDB in Washington from 1971 to 1987, when he resigned to return to Mexico.
Now 92, Ortiz Mena has been in retirement since he left the about-to-be-privatized Banco Nacional de México (Banamex) in 1991.
Unlike many Mexican finance ministers before and since, Ortiz Mena had enormous independence from political interference in running the country's economic policy. Author and historian Enrique Krauze has dubbed his reign at the Mexican finance ministry an "economic presidency".
Over this 12-year period, Mexico enjoyed average annual GDP growth of 6.8%