Fernando Henrique Cardoso was president of the Federative Republic of Brazil for two successive mandates (from January 1995 to January 2003), winning both elections by an absolute majority.

Among his current functions, Cardoso is chairman of the Club of Madrid and co-chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, and of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Cardoso is also professor "at large" at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; and holder of the "Cultures of the South" chair at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. He recently presided over the United Nations Panel of Eminent Personalities on the relationship between the organization and civil society and coordinated the working group in charge of reviewing the Ibero-American Summitry process.

Cardoso was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1931. He is married and has three children.