Miguel Urrutia Montoya (born 20 April 1939) is a Colombian economist and author, currently serving as Titular Professor of Economics at the University of the Andes in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

. He served as 12th General Manager of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia from 1993 to 2004, and as 5th Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy in 1977 during the administration of

Alfonso López Michelsen Alfonso López Michelsen (30 June 1913 – 11 July 2007) was a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the 24th President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978. He was nicknamed "El Pollo" (The Chicken), a popular Colombian idiom for people with ...

Background

Urrutia finished his

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

at Portsmouth Priory School, in

Portsmouth, Rhode Island Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,871 at the 2020 U.S. census. Portsmouth is the second-oldest municipality in Rhode Island, after Providence; it was one of the four colonies which merged ...

, where he graduated in 1957 with Bachiller ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

''. He then attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

graduating ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' in 1961 with

Bachelor of Economics The Bachelor of Economics (BEc or BEcon), or the "Bachelor of Applied Economics", is a bachelor's degree awarded by many universities and colleges for completion of an undergraduate program in economics, econometrics, or applied economics; the ...

. He continued to pursue his studies at the received a

University of California, 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 u ...

, where he obtained his

Master of Economics The Master of Economics (MEcon or MEc) is a postgraduate master's degree in economics comprising training in economic theory, econometrics, and/or applied economics. The degree is also offered as an MS or MSc, MA or MCom in economics; varian ...

in 1964, and his PhD in Economics in 1967 with his dissertation on Labour Unions in Colombia, published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

under the title ''History of Colombian Labor Movement''. In 1982 he served as Deputy Rector of

United Nations University The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare thro ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Among his most significant books on Colombian socio-economic history are: The Development of Colombian Labor Movement, Income Distribution in Colombia (With Albert Berry), Winners and Losers in Colombia's Economic Growth of the 1970s, and his most recent "Politica social para la equidad en Colombia: Historia y experiencias" (with Christian Robles-Baez) published in 2021 by Universidad de los Andes in Bogota.

Personal life

Miguel Urrutia Montoya was born 20 April 1939 in Bogotá, D.C. to

Francisco José Urrutia Holguín Francisco José Urrutia Holguín (28 May 1910 – 19 October 1981) was a Colombian-Ecuadorian lawyer and diplomat. He served as the seventh Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, the 11th Colombia Ambassador to United S ...

and Genoveva Montoya Williamson. He married Elsa Pombo Kopp in Bogotá on 3 August 1963, and together they have three children: Elena, Santiago, and Isabel.

References

1939 births Living people People from Bogotá Miguel Governors of the Bank of the Republic (Colombia) Harvard Business School alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Colombian economists Ministers of Mines and Energy of Colombia Academic staff of the University of Los Andes (Colombia) Portsmouth Abbey School alumni {{colombia-politician-stub