José Ángel Gurría

Who is José Ángel Gurría?

José Ángel Gurría Treviño, also known as Ángel Gurría, is a Mexican economist and diplomat. He is the current secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since June 1, 2006.

Gurría graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom and at Harvard University, in the United States. He served as the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs and as Secretary of Finance in the Ernesto Zedillo administration. In Foreign Affairs he opposed the Helms-Burton Act and while serving in Treasury, he restructured the foreign debt. He also negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement and requested financial aid during the 1994 crisis.

Gurría has also been President and CEO of the National Development Bank of Mexico and President and CEO of the Foreign Trade Bank. From 2003 to 2005 he was a chair member of the Inter-American Development Bank's External Advisory Group.

He was the architect of the Mexican economic stabilization, partially by cutting government spending six times during the Zedillo administration.