Jaime Serra Puche

Jaime José Serra Puche (b. January 11, 1951 in Mexico City) is a Mexican economist. He is Chairman of SAI Consulting and Principal of NAFTA Fund. His professional practice includes the design of investment strategies in Mexico for foreign companies and advice to Mexican companies interested in becoming regional players in North America.

He served as Mexico's Undersecretary of Revenue, Secretary of Commerce and Industry in the cabinet of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and for 28 days he served as Secretary of Finance and Public Credit in the cabinet of Ernesto Zedillo in 1994. Dr. Serra led the negotiation and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); promoted the conclusion of the Uruguay Round and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO); headed the negotiations of free trade agreements with Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Costa Rica and promoted the creation of the Federal Competition Commission.

• See also Mexican peso crisis starting December 1994

He was a trustee of the Yale Corporation and currently co-chairs The President's Council on International Activities of Yale University. He is deputy chairman of the North American Group of the Trilateral Commission and member of the The US-Mexico Bilateral Council. He is a director of the following publicly listed companies: Chiquita Brands International (CQB); The Mexico Fund (MXF), Tenaris (TS), Vitro (VTO) and Grupo Modelo (GMODELOC).

Jaime Serra is the son of Jorge Serra Perayre and Carmen Puche Planes. He received a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, a master's degree in economics from El Colegio de México and a doctorate's degree in economics from Yale University.

He has taught several courses in economics at El Colegio de México (1979–1986) and at Stanford University (1982). From 1986 until 1988 he served as undersecretary of finance in the cabinet of Miguel de la Madrid. He received the National Prize of Social Sciences, Mexico 1986 and National Prize of Economics, Mexico 1979. He has written numerous articles in professional economics journals, many of them jointly with the American macroeconomist Timothy J. Kehoe.

Serra is married to Joanna Wright Abbott.

Sources

• Diccionario biográfico del gobierno mexicano, Ed. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1992.
• SAI Consulting