Thirty-sixth session of ECLAC

Féliz Vélez Fernández Varela is a Mexican economist and currently Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of Mexico.

Mr. Vélez began working with the federal government in 1982 as a financial analyst in the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, and from 1983 onwards served as Economic Adviser to various public departments, including INEGI (1983-1985), the Office of the President of the Republic (1988-1989), the Department for Planning of the Secretariat for Agriculture and Water Resources (1990-1992), and the Department for Sectoral Policy of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform (2000). He was also involved in studies on water basin pollution for the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). From June 2002 to January 2004 he was Director-General of Agrarian Policy and Planning of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform of Mexico. Mr. Vélez served from 2006 to July 2008 as Under-Secretary for Foresight Studies, Planning and Evaluation of the Secretariat of Social Development, and from July 2008 to 2012 as Secretary-General of the National Population Council (CONAPO).

Mr. Vélez has been an active academic with the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), as Director of the Master of Public Policy degree programme (1997-2006), Professor in the Department of Economics and the Department of Political Science (1987-2013), and Professor in the Department of Actuarial Science, Mathematics and Statistics. He has supervised over 50 bachelor’s and master’s degree theses and authored a number of publications, including “Alternativas para proveer más y mejores servicios públicos” (1989), “La Liberación de la Economía Mexicana en la Apertura Comercial y la Frontera Norte en México” (1991), and “Pobreza en México” (1994). He is an active member of the Mexican Demographic Society. Mr. Vélez holds a degree in Economics from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico and a Master in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University He is currently a candidate for a PhD in public policies from the Woodrow Wilson School.