Fostering Growth and Sustainable Development in Chile

with Felipe Larraín

Monday, April 23, 2018
7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
Uris Hall, Room 301
​Columbia Business School
Register Here
Breakfast will be provided.

The Bernstein Center's Student Leadership and Ethics Board and the School of International Public Affairs' Latin American Student Association are delighted to host a breakfast discussion with Felipe Larraín, Minister of Finance of the Government of Chile, in the context of Chile Day 2018 that will take place in New York City. The event will be in a fireside chat format moderated by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University.

Mr. Felipe Larraín is the Minister of Finance of the Government of Chile under the administration of President Sebastián Piñera.

Felipe Larraín was Chile’s Finance Minister in President Piñera’s first administration between March 2010 and March 2014. He was also Vice President of Chile in February 2014. Larraín has a PhD (1985) and a MA (1983) in Economics from Harvard University, as well as a BA in Economics from Universidad Católica de Chile (1981). He has a vast experience as an international consultant, academic, editor and author of 14 books and over 120 professional articles, published in Latin America, U.S.A., Europe, and Asia.

Larraín was Director of the Latin American Center for Economic and Social Policies (CLAPES UC) and Professor of Economics at Universidad Católica de Chile between March 2014 and March 2018. Previously, between 1997 and 1999 he was the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Since 1985, he has served as an economic advisor to several governments of the region, including Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Perú and Venezuela. He has also been a Faculty Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

In the past he has been a consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter- American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. He has also been a board member of several companies and institutions in Chile, throughout Latin America, the U.S. and Europe. In June 2014 he became member of the UN ́s Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

He has received several awards and honors, including: Chilean National Award for Public Service, Fundación ChileSiempre, 2017; named one of 100 Most Influential World Leaders (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, AACSB), 2015; best sovereign bond issue 2012-13 (Latin Finance); Vice President of the OECD Ministerial meeting in Paris, 2012; Finance Minister of the Year 2010, Region of the Americas (The Banker); Best Finance Minister 2010 of Latin America (América Economia); 2010 Economist of the Year (El Mercurio); Finance Minister 2010 of Latin America (Emerging Markets, Latin Finance); 2002 Alumnae of the Year (Universidad Católica); award from Magisterio Nacional Boliviano (1986) for distinguished service as Economic Advisor to the President of Bolivia; Raúl Yver Oxley award (1980) to the best student in his class at Universidad Católica; Luis Cruz Martínez award (1976) to the student with the highest score of the Chilean universities admissions exam and the best high school transcript of Chile.

Larraín was born in Santiago, Chile in 1958. He is married and the father of five children.

This event is co-sponsored with the Latin American Association of the School of International Public Affairs and InBest Chile (Nonprofit NGO for the Development of Chile's Capital Market).