Alberto Vallarino Clément, (

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

, April 2, 1951) engineer, businessman and president of Grupo VerdeAzul, S.A. since 2011.

Biography

Alberto Vallarino Clément was born in

on April 2, 1951. He is the son of Mr. Alberto Vallarino Céspedes and Mrs. Marta Stella Clément Linares. One of his great-grandparents, Mr. Enrique Linares, served as president twice and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic. His other grandfather, Carlos Clément, was one of the heroes of the Independence in Colón.Editora Panamá América
/ref> On July 24, 1981, Vallarino married Adriana Lewis Morgan, daughter of Samuel Lewis Galindo and Itza Morgan de Lewis. They have three children: Ana Maria, Diego and Ximena.

Studies

In 1968 he obtained his diploma of Bachelor of Science from Colegio La Salle, with first place of honor of his class. In 1973 he graduated in Industrial Engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, where he also earned a master's degree in

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

in 1974.

Work experience

Alberto Vallarino began his career in 1974 at Citibank, N.A. Later he worked as general manager of Industria Nacional de Plásticos, S.A. (1975–1988) and Executive Vice President of Metalforma, S.A. (1979–1988). In 1988, he was appointed Executive Vice President of Banco del Istmo and its subsidiaries. He also served as CEO of

Grupo Banistmo Grupo Banistmo was a Panamanian financial services company, and the largest in Central America. It was founded in 1984. In 1999 it began an expansion strategy that has resulted in the acquisition of banks in several Central American countries, as w ...

for 20 years, until its sale in 2007 to the

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

group.Tu Política
/ref> In 1999, Alberto Vallarino founded the Buenaventura Tourism Development. In addition, Vallarino was member of the board of directors of several companies:

Cable & Wireless Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Ltd operating as C&W Communications is a telecommunications company which has operations in the Caribbean and Central America. It is owned by Liberty Latin America and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It ...

Panama, S.A., Caja de Seguro Social (Social Security), Banco Nacional de Panamá and Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica S.A. (Electric Transmission Company). On February 19, 2013, he was appointed as a member of the board of directors of the

Panama Canal Authority The Panama Canal Authority ( es, Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP)) is the agency of the government of Panama responsible for the operation and management of the Panama Canal. The ACP took over the administration of the canal from the Panama ...

for a period of nine years. Since 2011, Alberto Vallarino has been the CEO of Grupo Verdeazul, S.A.

Political career

In 1984 he was General Sub Coordinator of the presidential campaign of Arnulfo Arias. Meanwhile, during 1989 he participated from corporate associations in the Cruzada Civilista (Civil Crusade) to overthrow the military dictatorship. For the elections of May 2, 1999, Vallarino was the presidential candidate for Acción Oppositora, which emerged from the alliance of four opposition groups, including Partido Demócrata Cristiano. Between 2009 and 2011, Alberto Vallarino served as Minister of Economy and Finance of Panama in the government of former President

Ricardo Martinelli Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal (born March 11, 1951) is a Panamanian politician and businessman who was the 36th President of Panama, president of Panama from 2009 to 2014. Early life Born in Panama City, Ricardo Martinelli is the son ...

. During his tenure as head of the ministry,

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

won in 2010 the award of Investment Grade of three risk rating agencies, over a period of time of 90 days: on March

Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings Inc. is an American credit rating agency and is one of the " Big Three credit rating agencies", the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSRO) ...

upgraded the qualification of Panama, allowing the nation to achieve the Investment Grade Category for the first time; on May

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is con ...

Ratings Services also upgraded Panama's rating to Investment Grade, due to the prospects of moderate deficit and the expectations of economic growth; meanwhile, on June

Moody's Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides international ...

awarded Panama with the Investment Grade, due to the "significant improvement" in the country's fiscal policies and a solid economic growth. Also, during Alberto Vallarino's period as minister, Panama managed to be excluded from the list of tax havens by the

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries ...

(OECD) in July 2011, as well as being removed from "the list of countries which identified Panama as an uncooperative tax haven, as is the case of Mexico, France, Italy and others", in the words of Vallarino.

Philanthropic work

Alberto Vallarino served as president of the Unión de Trabajo Industrial de Panamá (1981–1982), Asociación de Industriales Latinoamericanos (1982) and Asociación de Exportadores Panameños (1983); besides being founder and life member of Instituto de Competitividad Infantil de COSPAE; member of Fundación para el Desarrollo Económico y Social de Panamá (Fudespa) and the National Centre of Competitiveness; and president of Fundación Por Un Mejor Panamá. Also, he constituted Fundación Vallarino Clément, to promote programs and projects related to education, economy and culture. While he was part of Banistmo, Vallarino established and directed Valores del Istmo, the corporate social responsibility arm of the bank. Then he took that same philosophy to Grupo VerdeAzul, S.A. in 2007, through Fundación Por Un Mejor Panamá.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vallarino Clement, Alberto Living people Panamanian businesspeople HSBC people Government ministers of Panama 1951 births