Georgetown Americas Institute

Agenda

9:00-9:30 a.m. | Registration and Breakfast

9:30-9:35 a.m. | Welcome Remarks

9:35-10:00 a.m. | Keynote: Priorities for Colombia’s Next President
Esteban Piedrahita Uribe, Rector, Universidad ICESI 

10:00-11:15 a.m. | Growth, Jobs, and Fiscal Reality: Colombia’s Economic Challenges
Ana Fernanda Maiguashca, President, Consejo Privado de Competitividad
Javier Mejia Cubillos, Lecturer, Stanford University
Moderator: Alejandro Werner, Georgetown Americas Institute

11:15-11:30 a.m. | Coffee Break

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Security, Drug Trafficking, and Territorial Control: A Snapshot of  Colombia’s Ongoing Security Challenges
Maria Victoria Llorente, Executive Director, Fundación Ideas para la Paz
Roman Ortiz, William J Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (former)
John Walsh, Director for Drug Policy and the Andes, WOLA
Moderator: Michael Shifter, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University  

Featuring

Maria Victoria Llorente is executive director of Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP), Colombia's leading think tank on peace and security, a position she has held since 2006. A political scientist with more than 25 years of experience, her work focuses on peacebuilding and stabilization, public policy to confront organized crime, citizen security, and police reform. Before joining FIP, she was an associate researcher at Center for Studies on Economic Development (Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico, CEDE) at the Universidad de los Andes, where she coordinated the Public Peace Studies Group. She has served on government advisory commissions on criminal justice policy, drug policy, and national police reform, and has consulted for the IDB, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the Colombian National Police. She holds a political science degree from the Universidad de los Andes.

Ana Fernanda Maiguashca is president of the Consejo Privado de Competitividad (Private Competitiveness Council) of Colombia. An economist trained at the Universidad de los Andes, she also holds an MBA from Columbia University. She previously served as co-director of the Banco de la República from 2013 to 2021 and as deputy finance minister (viceministra técnica) of Colombia’s Ministry of Finance. Earlier in her career, she served as deputy superintendent for risk supervision at the Superintendencia Financiera, where she helped steer Colombia through the 2008 global financial crisis. Her work has focused on financial markets, fiscal policy, and economic competitiveness.

Javier Mejia Cubillos is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and a member of the Stanford Civics Initiative. His work sits at the intersection of social networks and economic history, with additional interests in entrepreneurship and political economy, and a geographical specialty in Latin America. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Universidad de los Andes and has also served as a postdoctoral associate and lecturer at NYU Abu Dhabi and a visiting scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is a columnist for Forbes Colombia and co-hosts the New Books in Economic and Business History podcast.

Roman Ortiz is a scholar and consultant with over 25 years of experience in Latin American security and defense affairs. His work focuses on insurgencies and terrorist groups, the transformation of Latin American military organizations, and Russian and Chinese security activities in the region. Currently, he is the director of the Strategic Analysis and Consulting Group, a consulting firm specializing in Latin American security and defense affairs, and associated fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Ortiz has taught and consulted at institutions in the United States, Spain, and Colombia, including the Catholic University of America, the Joint Special Operations University, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, and the Universidad de los Andes. He previously served as coordinator of the Security Studies Area at Fundación Ideas para la Paz in Bogotá. Between 2010 and 2014, he served as adviser to the Colombian Minister of Defense. During this time, he advised on the planning and execution of the "Sword of Honor" campaign, which played a critical role in reducing violence in Colombian rural areas and bringing the FARC to the negotiating table. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Complutense University in Madrid.

Esteban Piedrahita Uribe is the rector/president of Universidad ICESI in Cali, Colombia. Universidad ICESI is a private, non-profit higher education institution, founded in 1979 by several of Cali’s leading businesses, and currently serves approximately 8,300 full-time undergraduate and graduate students. ICESI consistently ranks among the top five universities in Colombia in the national Saber Pro university exit exams, has the highest level of socioeconomic inclusion among the highest-quality private universities in the country (59% of undergrads from poor and underprivileged backgrounds), and placed first in Colombia and in the top 10 in Latin America in Times Higher Education’s 2024 ranking of young universities (50 years since foundation). Before joining ICESI in November 2021, he had served as president of the Cali Chamber of Commerce, director general of Colombia’s National Planning Department, advisor to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, economic editor at Revista SEMANA, and financial analyst at Salomon Brothers in New York, among other roles. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Cementos Argos and Seguros Bolívar, two of Colombia’s largest companies, and Fundación Valle del Lili, the country’s top hospital. Piedrahita graduated magna cum laude in economics from Harvard University and earned an M.Sc. in philosophy and history of science, with merit, from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Michael Shifter is an adjunct professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue. Shifter held senior positions at the Dialogue for nearly three decades and served 12 years as president; he currently serves as senior fellow at the organization. Prior to joining the Inter-American Dialogue, Shifter directed the Latin American and Caribbean program at the National Endowment for Democracy and, before that, the Ford Foundation’s governance and human rights program in the Andean region and Southern Cone. In the 1980s, he was a representative in Brazil with the Inter-American Foundation and worked at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin American Program. Shifter graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Oberlin College and holds a M.A. in sociology from Harvard University, where he taught Latin American development and politics for four years.

John Walsh is the director for drug policy and the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America,where he has led WOLA’s efforts to promote more humane and effective drug policies, documenting the damage caused by punitive policies and promoting alternatives to the U.S. “war on drugs” since 2003. Hiss research and advocacy encompass developments within U.S. domestic and foreign policy, countries throughout the Americas, and the UN global drug control system. He also leads WOLA’s efforts to confront the challenges posed by the rise of potent synthetic drugs such as illicitly-manufactured fentanyl, the growth of global cocaine markets, the expansion of transnational criminal organizations, and climate-threatening deforestation driven by illicit drug trafficking and other extractive industries that are heavily financed by the drug trade. Prior to joining WOLA, Walsh served as director of research at Drug Strategies and worked at the Center of Concern on the “Rethinking Bretton Woods Project,” an effort to forge consensus on ideas for reform of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and international trade arrangements.

Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from ITAM.