Who's Who Of Mexico Debt Talks

William Rhodes When Citibank's loans to the Somoza regime in Nicaragua went sour, the bank turned to Mr. Rhodes, known as a tough negotiator. Since then Rhodes, a group executive and a 32-year veteran of the bank, has become the bank's chief negotiator for Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, and Argentina. Rhodes developed an interest in the region as an undergraduate at Brown University. During his summers he worked on a freighter sailing to Latin waters.

E. Gerald Corrigan

Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan made Mr. Corrigan his personal representative to the debt talks. Corrigan is president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and a 21-year veteran of the Fed.

Corrigan, a former economics professor at Fordham University - where he obtained his doctorate - is known as a pragmatist who is adept at problem solving. ``Gerry enjoys negotiating - he's very good at it,'' says Steven Axilrod, vice-chairman of Nikko Securities Company International Inc.

David Mulford

Mr. Mulford, US undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, is widely believed to be the creator of Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady's debt plan. Mulford, with a PhD from Oxford University, is now responsible for making sure Mr. Brady's plan gets implemented.

To keep negotiations moving, Mulford is not afraid to use a carrot-and-stick approach. Mulford ``has made veiled references to other, less agreeable means of ensuring bank participation in the Brady initiative,'' says Lawrence Krohn, an economist at Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc.

Angel Gurria Trevino

Chief negotiator and undersecretary for financial affairs, Mr. Gurria is a fast-rising star in the Mexican government. In 1982, after only four years in the Ministry of Finance, Gurria, who has a master's degree in economics from Leeds University in England, was given the job of negotiating Mexico's foreign debt. He is a board member of four commercial banks and several public financial institutions.

Most outsiders consider him a competent and persistent negotiator. At Leeds University, he is remembered as one of the top students in his class.

Luis Tellez-Kuenzler

Mr. Tellez, 31, Mexico's general director of finance, is the No. 3 man in the debt negotiations. Tellez, a former Fullbright winner, received his doctorate in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Robert Solow, a Nobel prize winner and MIT professor, calls him an ``intelligent, well-trained economist who can hold his own in the debt aspect and in national economic issues.''