Patricia Espinosa


Patricia Espinosa Cantellano is a Mexican politician and diplomat who is currently serving as the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She was Mexican Ambassador to Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia and served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Felipe Calderón.
She graduated with a bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México and earned a diploma in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland. She is married and has two children.

Diplomatic career

Espinosa joined the Foreign Service on September 16, 1981, serving at the Mexican delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. From 1992 to 1997 she worked at the Mexican delegation to the United Nations at New York City and served as general director of the Ibero-American Summit and the Summit of the Americas.
She was promoted to Ambassador within the Foreign Service in 2000 and served at the Mexican Embassy in Germany from January 2001 to June 2002, leaving the post to serve as Ambassador to Austria, concurrently with a number of international organizations based in Vienna, from June 2002 to November 2006.
and Peter Mackay
On November 28, 2006, President-elect Felipe Calderón announced that she would serve as his Secretary of Foreign Affairs starting on December 1, 2006. Her priorities included the diversification of the United States-Mexico agenda and the rebuilding of diplomatic relations with Cuba and Venezuela, which were strained during the previous administration.
In May 2016, she was selected by United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon to be the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Other activities