Georgina Kessel Martínez is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

. She is a former head of the Casa de Moneda de México

Mexican Mint

The Casa de Moneda de México is the national mint of Mexico and the oldest mint in the Americas, established in 1535.Since 1983, coins are only produced in San Luis Potosí in Mexico and the main client is the Banco de México...

(the Mexican mint) and the Secretary of Energy

Secretary of Energy (Mexico)

The Secretariat of Energy is the government department in charge of energy production and regulation in Mexico. The Secretary of Energy is a member of the Executive Cabinet. The current Secretary of Energy is Georgina Kessel.-External links:...

 in the cabinet of President Felipe Calderón

Felipe Calderón

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...

.

She is now head of the Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos (Banobras

Banobras

Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos, SNC or Banobras is state owned development bank in Mexico. Its core business is sub national and project finance...

)

Personal life and education

Kessel attended the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

The Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México , commonly known as ITAM, is a private Ph.D.-granting research university located in Mexico City, Mexico...

(ITAM) from 1975 to 1979 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics. A few years later she received a doctorate's degree in the same discipline from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Kessel worked for over nine years as a full-time professor at the ITAM, where she headed the Department of Economics in 1994. Amongst her former students is Felipe Calderon, who earned a masters degree in Economics under Kessel at ITAM. Calderon subsequently appointed her Minister of Energy after he was elected President of Mexico in 2006.

Public and political career

In the public sector Kessel has worked at the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Mexican mint (Casa de Moneda de México

Mexican Mint

The Casa de Moneda de México is the national mint of Mexico and the oldest mint in the Americas, established in 1535.Since 1983, coins are only produced in San Luis Potosí in Mexico and the main client is the Banco de México...

), Pemex

Pemex

Petróleos Mexicanos or Pemex is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. As of 2010, with a total asset worth of $415.75 billion, it is the second non-publicly listed largest company in the world by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009...

 and the Secretariat of Finance.

In 2005 she received the Premio al mérito profesional in the public sector, a recognition of the ITAM alumni.

Published works

• El sur también existe (with Santiago Levy and Enrique Dávila).
• Los peligros del Plan Puebla-Panamá
• Lo negociado del Tratado de Libre Comercio (compiler).