On December 6, 2018, the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Series hosted Ernesto Zedillo, the Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; Professor in the Field of International Economics and Politics; Professor of International and Area Studies; and Professor Adjunct of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, gave a public lecture on the topic of "Globalization in the Times of Political and Academic Populism."

After almost a decade with the Central Bank of Mexico he served as Undersecretary of the Budget, Secretary of Economic Programming and the Budget, and Secretary of Education before serving as President of Mexico from 1994-2000. He is Chairman of the Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health and Co-Chair of the Inter-American Dialogue. He is a member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders using their collective experience and influence for peace, justice and human rights worldwide. He serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the High-Level Board of Experts on the Future of Global Trade Governance and on the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. From 2010 to 2012 he served as Vice Chair of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, chaired by Kofi Annan; from 2005 to 2011, as Chair of the Global Development Network; and from 2008 to 2010 as Chair of the High-Level Commission on Modernization of World Bank Group Governance.

He is a Member of the Group of 30, a consultative group on international economic and monetary affairs. In 2011 he was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the School of Economics of the Natìonal Polytechnic Institute in Mexico and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Yale University. His edited volumes include: Africa at a Fork in the Road: Taking Off or Disappointment Once Again? (2015); Rethinking the War on Drugs through the US-Mexico Prism (2012); Global Warming: Looking Beyond Kyoto (2008); and The Future of Globalization: Explorations in Light of Recent Turbulence (2008).

The full lecture can be viewed below.