Carlos Manuel Urzúa Macías

Urzúa earned a bachelor's degree from the Tecnológico de Monterrey in 1975, and a master's degree from Cinvestav in 1978, both in Mathematics.[3][4] He earned a Ph D in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986.[5] Urzúa began his teaching career at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, State of Mexico campus, at the age of 22. He was an assistant professor in the Economics Department at Georgetown University (1986-1988), and a visiting assistant professor in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (1988-1990). He was a professor in the Economics Department at the Colegio de México from 1989 to 2000.[3][4][5][6]

From 2000 to 2003, he was appointed as Secretary of Finance for the Mexico City government under then mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador.[6] In 2003, Urzúa left government to found the Escuela de Graduados en Administración Pública y Política Pública, a public policy graduate school at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City campus, which he directed for ten years.

Aside from his more theoretical work, Urzúa has written extensively on many aspects of the Mexican economy: fiscal policy, monetary policy, tax reform, poverty, economic competition, international trade, fiscal federalism, and economic history.[3][4] He has worked over the years as a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the United Nations Development Programme and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.[4][6] He has also advised Mexican firms on international trade issues.