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MinisterResume

Andrés Velasco Brañes

Andrés Velasco holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and was a postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Harvard University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  He received a bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy, and a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University.

He was Sumitomo-FASID Professor of Development and International Finance at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government from 2002 to 2006.

Mr. Velasco has also served as director of the New York University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and as an assistant professor at the Columbia University Department of Economics and Public Affairs. He was chief of staff at Chile’s Ministry of Finance from 1990 to 1992, international finance coordinator from 1992 to 1994, and NAFTA negotiator in 1995.

He was an associate researcher at the Corporation for Latin American Research (Cieplan) and president of the board of Expansiva, a Chilean think tank, from 2001 to February 2006. He has also been a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and to the governments of the Dominican Republic, Mexico and El Salvador.

Mr. Velasco was president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) from 2006 to 2007. From its creation in 1999 and until 2005 he was the editor of Economía, LACEA’s specialized journal and the main regional forum for high quality research on public policy.

In February 2006, he received the Award for Excellence in Research granted by the Inter-American Development Bank in recognition for his contributions to economic research, policy design, and the creation of research institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. In October 2008 Mr. Velasco was recognized as Latin American Finance Minister of the Year by Emerging Markets, the official publication of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as judged by a panel of leading regional economists, investors and experts. 

In addition to publications of works on economics and regulation, he has published two works of fiction in Spanish: Vox Populi (Editorial Sudamericana, 1995) and Lugares Comunes (Editorial Planeta, 2003), and numerous academic papers.

Mr. Velasco who is not a member of any political party, was appointed minister of finance by President Michelle Bachelet in March 2006.