Francisco Gil Díaz

Who is Francisco Gil Díaz?

Francisco Gil Díaz is a Mexican economist who served as Secretary of Finance in the cabinet of President Vicente Fox and currently serves as regional chairman of Telefónica for Mexico and Central America.

Gil Díaz is the son of Francisco Gil Arias, a fisherman, and Ana María Díaz Perches. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Autonomous Technology Institute of Mexico and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, in the United States. He sits on the board of the Ibero-American University and the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.

In the public sector he has served as Undersecretary of Finance and Vice-Governor of the Mexican central bank. In the private sector he worked as CEO of Avantel, a Mexican telephone and internet service provider.

Gil Díaz is married to Margarita White de la Peña and has four children, including Francisco Gil-White. He joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1979 and taught economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, where he is also an emeritus professor and where he also received an honorary degree in May 2009.