José Natividad González Parás

José Natividad González Parás (Monterrey, Nuevo León, March 30, 1949) is a Mexican politician, member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. He was governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León from 2003-2009.

Biography

He was born in Monterrey on March 30, 1949 into a family originally from General Terán and Montemorelos, he is a direct descendant of the first governor of the state, José María Parás (1825–1827 and 1848–1850). González Parás is the son of José Natividad González González and María Cristina Parás Barocio, his childhood was spent in the state of Nuevo León in a small house on Vallarta street, in the center of the city of Monterrey. He is the first of seven children. He married Cristina Maíz in 1978 and is the father of four children.

Training

He completed his basic education at Colegio Franco Mexicano and in public schools. Lawyer from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, he graduated at the age of 21 and works as a lawyer litigating civil and commercial matters. With the support of the National Science and Technology Commission (Conacyt), he completed his postgraduate studies in Paris, France, obtaining a master's degree in Public Administration at the International Institute of Public Administration (now École nationale d'administration) in 1973, where he was president of the Alumni Association. He obtained his doctorate in Political Science from the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne) in 1976, graduating with the highest distinction awarded by the University.

Academic background

In the academic field, González Parás was a teacher for several years at the Faculty of Political Sciences and, in the Doctorate in Law, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. At the Colegio de México he taught Politics and Government in the master's degree in Political Science, and Public Administration in the degree of the same name. He is a founding teacher at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, of the Master's in Public Administration, of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences and of the doctorate in Law. Professor and lecturer in different generations of the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP), he has to his credit various publications and essays in public administration, political science, education and foreign policy. He was vice president and later president of INAP (1997-2002); Vice President of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IICA); President of the Latin American Center for Development (CLAD) and member of the National Academy of Administrative Law and Public Administration.

Trajectory in Public Service

Public administration

He began in public administration at the Secretariat of the Presidency where he served as deputy director of Programming and Evaluation, in 1976; later in the Presidency of the Republic as general director of Organization and Institutional Development, from 1977 to 1980; and general deputy coordinator of Administrative Studies, from 1980 to 1982. In Nuevo León he served as Secretary General of Government, from 1988 to 1991, and president of the State Electoral Commission, from 1988 to 1991. He was advisor to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, only of August to December 1991. He served as coordinator of the foreign policy cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic and coordinator of presidential tours internationally, from December 1991 to 1994; He was also Undersecretary of Political Development in the Ministry of the Interior and Governor of the State of Nuevo León in the period 2003 - 2009.

Federal Legislature

He was a federal deputy for 1.er. Electoral District of Nuevo León, from November 1994 to July 1995 and Secretary of the Great Commission in the LVI Legislature, Senator of the Republic in the LVIII Legislature where he chaired the Education and Culture Commission and was the main promoter of Preschool Education mandatory. The position that he left to run as a candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for the governorship of Nuevo León in the 2003 federal elections.

Campaigns for governorship

In 1997 he ran for governor, narrowly losing to Fernando Canales Clariond, of the National Action Party. Six years later, he was elected candidate again after being the winner in an internal contest and was nominated by the broad Citizen Alliance made up of the PRI-PVEM-Fuerza Ciudadana Party-Mexican Liberal Party, with which he won the elections on July 6, 2003 with 824,567 votes (58.22%) against 491,973 votes (34.74%) for PAN member Mauricio Fernández Garza.

Governance

As governor, he distinguished himself for the construction of public works and for deregulating some activities that previously corresponded exclusively to the local government (such as cultural promotion or social assistance) and placing them in the hands of plural citizen councils. Following the example of Barcelona, the governor sought and obtained the responsibility for Monterrey to host the Universal Forum of Cultures Monterrey 2007, an event that, as in Barcelona, was used to renew the urban infrastructure. Another part of the infrastructure development was the expansion of the Metrorrey Collective Transport System, as well as the remodeling of the first square of the city, the expansion of Fundidora Park and the construction of Paseo Santa Lucía, among other numerous infrastructure works and investments. He developed the project Monterrey: International City of Knowledge, based on the Triple Helix model that unites the business, educational and scientific research sectors in order to potentiate technological development supported by the knowledge economy. As part of this project, the Research and Technological Innovation Park was built, as well as more than 40 research centers in the state, in addition to achieving the involvement of the educational area in the development of the project. At the same time, he began the cluster integration policy in strategic sectors of the economy, such as software, biotechnology, automotive, agri-food, and aerospace, among others.

Acknowledgments

José Natividad González Paras has been recognized by the Mexican Academy of Sciences as Governor of Science, Knowledge, and Innovation. Internationally, he was decorated by the Republic of France as "Commander of the Legion of Honor"; by the Italian Republic as "Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic"; by the Spanish Government with the Decoration: "Order of Isabel La Católica" and by the State of Quebec with the Decoration: "National Order of Québec" in Officer Grade.

Other charges

In addition to his responsibility as governor, he has participated as president of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP), since October 1997; and president of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Center for Development Administration, since October 1999. Among his political-partisan activities, his work as secretary of Social Promotion and Management, as well as Ideological Dissemination of the National Executive Committee (CEN) of the PRI, from 1982 to 1986, stands out. He was president of the State Steering Committee of the tricolor in Nuevo León, from 1986 to 1988 and a member of the PRI's National Political Council (CEN). He is counselor of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the Economic Integration Program in Latin America, since May 1998. He is currently president and CEO of the strategic consulting firm "Primer Círculo, SC" and president of the National Academy of Administrative Law and Public Administration.