This June 29, the elected president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced that the economist, José Antonio Ocampo, will be the Minister of Finance of his government. Ocampo’s profile is characterized by an extensive resume, which highlights his experience and studies in economic matters.
(Reactions to the appointment of Ocampo as Minister of Finance).
Ocampo was born in Cali on December 20, 1952, he is the son of the former minister and former rector of the Universidad del Valle, Alfonso Ocampo Londoño, and Tulia Gaviria de Ocampo, who was also a public official.
The next finance minister studied economics and sociology at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Then, in 1976, he graduated with a doctorate in economics from Yale University, and was recognized with the Alejandro Ángel Escobar National Science Award in 1988.
Ocampo’s name has been positioned positively in the national and international levelthanks to his recognized professional and academic career.
(José Antonio Ocampo will be the Minister of Finance of the Petro government).
Professionally, the economist was Minister of Agriculture in the government of César Gaviria (1990 – 1994), Minister of Finance and director of the National Planning Department in Ernesto Samper’s (1994 -1998), and was appointed co-director of Banco de la República in 2017during the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos.
In addition to this, he held various positions in International organizations. From 1998 to 2003, he was Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and then, until 2007, he was United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.
In terms of academics, José Antonio Ocampo was a professor at the Faculty of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, director of the Foundation for Higher Education and Development (Fedesarrollo), and guest professor at the Universities of Cambridge, Yale and Oxford.
The next finance minister has written several books and articles on macroeconomic theory and policy, economic development, international trade, and economic history.
Currently, Ocampo, in addition to working as professor at Columbia University in the United States, He is a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), which studies issues of the international corporate tax system.
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