Political and Economic Reform in Brazil: From Sarney to Lula

Zelia Cardoso
Former Finance Minister of Brazil

Mauricio Font
Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies

Dr. Zélia Cardoso de Mello, a former Economy, Finance and Planning Minister of Brazil, is now living in NY and is ORIX Trade Capital’s senior advisor with respect to Brazilian business opportunities. Her academic career was entirely accomplished in the School of Business and Economics at the University of São Paulo: she graduated from college in 1975, received her Ph.D. in 1981 and became an Assistant Professor in 1977 where she stayed as a Professor until 1995. After completing her PhD, she served as economist at the Brazilian Embassy in London in 1982-1983, and upon returning to Brazil, she was appointed CFO of the São Paulo State Housing Development Company (CDHU), serving there until 1986. In 1986, Mr. Dilson Funaro, the Minister of Finance, invited her to join his Economic Advisory Team as Director at the National Treasure Dept., where she stayed through May 1987. After leaving the Ministry she became a partner in a Brazilian trading company- Corema, until 1989. In 1990 she was appointed Minister of Economy, Finance and Planning. She served in that position until 1991, when she returned to the University of São Paulo and continued to work as a consultant to several Brazilian companies. In 1995 she moved to New York where she became a visiting scholar at ILAIS (Institute of Latin America and Iberian Studies) at Columbia University in 1996-97. She published several papers in Brazilian and foreign magazines. In 1985 she published “Metamorphosis of Wealth, São Paulo 1845-1895”. She participated as co-author and many others books.

Mauricio Font is director of the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies and professor of sociology at The Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York. His research examines problems of development and reform in Brazil, Cuba and Latin America as well as international cooperation in the Western Hemisphere. Font’s publications on Brazil include: Transforming Brazil: A Reform Era in Perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), Coffee, Contention, and Change (Basil Blackwell, 1990), and Brazilian Statism: Rise, Limits, and Decline (forthcoming, 2003). He also edited and introduced Charting a New Course: The Politics of Globalization and Social Transformation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), a volume with twenty-six essays by Fernando Henrique Cardoso. He has also published a variety of essays on Latin America, the North American Free Trade Agreement and US-Latin America relations, Cuba, Brazil and the comparative-historical study of development trajectories in settler societies.

When: Friday, September 12 4:30pm
Where: Room 9206
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(@34th Street)

To reserve, send e-mail to brazilproject@gc.cuny.edu or leave message at (212) 817-2096