Kevin Casas-Zamora (born August 4, 1968) is a

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

n politician, lawyer and political scientist. Casas-Zamora is Secretary General of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance,

International IDEA The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that works to support and strengthen democratic institutions and processes around the world, to develop sustainable, eff ...

, an inter-governmental organization based in Stockholm; and Senior Fellow and former Director of the Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy research center based in Washington D.C. Prior to that he was Secretary for Political Affairs at the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...

and Senior Fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

. He also served as Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy as well as second

Vice President of Costa Rica The 1949 Constitution of Costa Rica established two vice-presidencies of Costa Rica, which are directly elected through a popular vote on a ticket with the president for a period of four years, with no immediate re-election. There has been various ...

under

Oscar Arias Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

from May 8, 2006 until September 22, 2007. He earned his JD from the

University of Costa Rica The University of Costa Rica (Spanish: ''Universidad de Costa Rica,'' abbreviated UCR) is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Mo ...

, his MA from the University of Essex, and his DPhil from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. His doctoral thesis, titled “Paying for Democracy in Latin America: Political Finance and State Funding for Parties in Costa Rica and Uruguay,” won the 2004 Jean Blondel PhD Prize from the European Consortium for Political Research for best thesis in politics in Europe and was later developed into a book, under the title "Paying for Democracy." In 2007 Casas-Zamora was selected as Young Global Leader by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

. Since 2013, he is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.

References

1968 births Living people Vice presidents of Costa Rica 20th-century Costa Rican lawyers Alumni of the University of Essex Members of the Inter-American Dialogue {{CostaRica-law-bio-stub