Leonel Fernández is a former the President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (2018-2022) and a member of the Inter-American Dialogue.

Fernandez is the son of sergeant major José Antonio Fernández Collado and Yolanda Reyna Romero.

After he finished high school, Fernandez returned to his country in 1968 and started law studies in the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo.

[citation needed] In the meantime, the international community rose their concerns on the tightening of the political tensions and fear the country was on the verge of a civil uprising.

[6] In the first-round election on 16 May 1996 Fernández received 38.9% of the votes in the first round achieving second place behind José Francisco Peña Gómez and PRD.

[citation needed] Peynado obtained 15% of the votes, the lowest outcome in Balaguer's party history which initiated a long-term downfall.

[8] In Santo Domingo and Santiago, which comprised 40% of the country's population, he favored "mega-projects", building numerous highways and tunnels which improved transit across the greater extent of these cities and created OMSA (Metropolitan Office of Autobus Services in English).

His party held primaries to elect a presidential nominee, which were won by Danilo Medina with 52% of the votes against Vice-president Jaime David Fernández Mirabal.

In an effort to avoid further economic chaos, the Mejía administration effectively underwrote all three banks, repaying their customers but generating even greater public debt.

Some of the bankers involved have been or are on trial, yet the extent of their fraud is hard to measure as their widespread largess with officials within both the Fernández and Mejía administrations has made it nearly impossible to achieve a true accounting of what conditions led to the bank's demise.

According to local sociologist José Oviedo, "The country trusts him with the economy, but he doesn't seem to pay that much attention to social issues."

The presidents of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela shook hands during the Rio Group summit, and agreed to end the dispute caused by a Colombian raid against FARC on Ecuadorian territory, for a special request from summit host Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez at 7 March 2008.

In 2001, he was accused of embezzling $100 million from the Temporary and Minimal Employment Program, a fund intended to create jobs and quell strikes.

In 2000, Leonel Fernandez founded the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), headquartered in Santo Domingo, as a think tank as well as a resource and training centre.

In 2002, he founded a sister organisation, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, dedicated to promoting collaboration between organizations in the United States and the Dominican Republic.

On 20 October 2018, the 42nd Plenary Assembly of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) unanimously elected him president of the global body for a 3-year renewable term thus succeeding to South Korea's senior Ambassador Park Soo-gil and former International Atomic Energy Agency Director General, Hans Blix.

[24][25] In 2003, Fernández married Margarita Cedeño Lizardo, his former Presidential Legal Adviser and an associate attorney of his law firm, having another child, Yolanda América María.

Moreover, Leonel Antonio Fernandez partook in many protests against the Balaguer regime, was a member of the Central and Political Committees of the Party of Dominican Liberation, which was founded by Juan Bosch.