LUIS ALBERTO MORENO

PRESIDENT, INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Luis Alberto Moreno is president of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. since 2005. Previous to joining the IDB, Moreno served as Colombia’s Ambassador to the United States for 7 years.

Prior to his post as Ambassador, Moreno was representative for the Andean Region of WestSphere Capital, a private equity firm focusing on investment opportunities in Latin America. Previously, he served as senior advisor to the Luis Carlos Sarmiento Organization, the leading banking & financial group in Colombia with over US$10 billion in assets.

Before this, Moreno was the President of the Instituto de Fomento Industrial (IFI), here Moreno led a successful privatization program and developed new financing instruments for private industry. In 1992, he was named Minister of Economic Development.

Moreno was Executive Producer of “TV Hoy”, an award-winning news program, from 1982 to 1990. The show received the “King of Spain Prize” for journalistic excellence, the Spanish language equivalent of a Pulitzer during his tenure. His writings have appeared in such newspapers as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald and El Tiempo, and in magazines as Foreign Affairs en Español and Semana.

Throughout his career, Moreno has received some of the highest decorations and distinctions awarded by the Colombian state and private sector. These include the “Orden al Mérito Civil Ciudad de Bogotá, en el Grado de Gran Cruz”; the “Orden al Mérito Industrial – José Gutiérrez Gómez”, awarded by the Colombian National Business Association (ANDI); and the “Orden de Boyacá en el Grado de Gran Cruz”, awarded by the President of Colombia.

Moreno obtained bachelor's degrees in Business Administration and Economics from Florida Atlantic University, and an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management at Thunderbird University. He was also a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University.