Ambassador H.E. Juan Ramón de la Fuente

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H.E. Juan Ramón de la Fuente has been the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations since February 2019.  He is a distinguished scholar who has served as Mexico´s Minister of Health and as Rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he currently is an Emeritus Professor.  A graduate of UNAM´s School Medicine and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Dr. de la Fuente has worked closely with the United Nations System and has held various posts since the 1980s; he has been a Consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) on addiction and mental health related issues; Vice-President of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, and Chairman of the Board of UNAIDS.  Ambassador de la Fuente has also worked with UNESCO as member of the Board for Latin America and the Caribbean on Higher Education, and later as President for the International Association of Universities (IAU).  In 2008 he was elected to Chair the Board of the United Nations University in Tokyo.  Ambassador de la Fuente is the recipient of Mexico´s National Prize for the Sciences and the Arts, the highest recognition of the Mexican Government for intellectual achievements as well as honorary doctorates from 11 countries.  He was President of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and a few years later, President of the Mexican Academy of Medicine.  Before his appointment as Mexican Ambassador to the UN, he was Director of the Global Studies Program at UNAM and President of the Board of the Aspen Institute in Mexico.