Mauricio Cárdenas Santamaría (born 9 June 1962) is a Colombian economist and politician who served as the 69th Minister of Finance and Public Credit and former

Minister of Mines and Energy of Colombia The Ministry of Mines and Energy ( es, Ministerio de Minas y Energía) is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia that oversees the regulation of the mining and mineral industry and the electricity sector in Colombia, it i ...

in the administration of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Juan Manuel Santos Calderón Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. An economist by profession and a journalist by trade ...

. Prior to this, he was a

Senior Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

and Director of the Latin America Initiative 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 ...

Early life and education

Born to Jorge Cárdenas Gutiérrez, former President of the

National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, ( es, link=no, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia), abbreviated as Colombian Coffee Growers Federation or Fedecafé, is a non-profit business organization, popularly known for its ...

, and his wife Cecilia Santamaría Botero on 9 June 1962 in

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

, Antioquia; the third of four children, his other siblings are: Patricia Eugenia, Jorge Hernán, and Eduardo. Cardenas holds a doctorate in economics from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

Career

For the Government of Colombia, Cardenas served as the 4th Minister of Economic Development, the 6th Minister of Transport, and former Director of the National Planning Department. As Minister of Finance, he also represented the government on the seven-member board of the country's

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...

. In the private sector has served as 11th and 9th Director of the Higher Education and Development Foundation (Fedesarrollo), as the 7th President Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA), as former President of Titularizadora Colombiana S.A., and as General Manager of Empresa de Energía de Bogotá S.A. ESP.On 20 September 2011

designated Cárdenas to succeed Juan Carlos Echeverry as

Minister of Economy A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

. He was sworn in as the 29th Minister of Mines and Energy on 26 September.

Later career

After leaving government, Cardenas joined various academic institutions. In 2019, he became a Visiting Senior Research Scholar at the

Center on Global Energy Policy The Center on Global Energy Policy is a research center located within the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. The center's director is Jason Bordoff, and it features senior research scholars such as Richard Nephew a ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Since 2020, Cardenas has been serving as a member of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR), an independent group examining how the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

(WHO) and countries handled the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, co-chaired by

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

and

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, 29 October 1938) is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa. Sirleaf was born in Mon ...

Other activities

Central American Bank for Economic Integration The Central American Bank for Economic Integration - CABEI ( BCIE in Spanish) was founded in 1960. It is an international multilateral development financial institution. Its resources are invested in projects that foster development to reduce pov ...

(CABEI), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2012-2018) *

Inter-American Investment Corporation The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an International financial institutions, international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development finan ...

(IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2012-2018) *

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

(IMF), Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (2012-2018) * Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA),

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Grou ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2012-2018) *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2012- 2018)

Personal life

On 10 January 1998 Cardenas married Cristina Fernández Mejía in a Catholic wedding at the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Church in

Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...

; together they have three daughters: Isabella, Andrea and Amalia.

References

External links

Cárrdenas's work on Latin America at the Brookings Institution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardenas Santamaria, Mauricio 1962 births Living people Colombian Conservative Party politicians Colombian economists Directors of the National Planning Department of Colombia People from Medellín Ministers of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia Ministers of Mines and Energy of Colombia UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni University of Los Andes (Colombia) alumni Academic staff of the University of Los Andes (Colombia)