Leonel Fernández

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna (born 26 December 1953) ([leoˈnɛl fɝˈnɑ̃des] lay-oh-NEHL fer-NAHN-dehss), is a Dominican lawyer, academic, and was the 50th and 52nd President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2012. From 2016 until 2020, he was the President of the EU–LAC Foundation.

Fernández became the first elected president of the Dominican Republic under his political party, the Dominican Liberation Party (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, or PLD), although party founder Juan Bosch was also sworn in as president in 1963 after the first democratic elections held in roughly four decades in the country. Fernández's administrations have focused much on technological and infrastructural development and macroeconomic and monetary stability. He has served as the party president of the Dominican Liberation Party from 2001 until his resignation on 20 October 2019. He later founded the People's Force and nominated himself as its party's presidential nominee.