Editorial Board

Mauricio Cárdenas is a professor of professional practice and director of the MPA in global leadership at Columbia University’s SIPA. He was the finance minister of Colombia from 2012 to 2018, and previously served in four other cabinet positions. Cárdenas was the director of the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution from 2008 to 2011. Prior to that, he was the executive director of the Fundación para la Educación Superior y el Desarrollo (Fedesarrollo) in Bogotá from 1996 to 1998 and from 2003 to 2008.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso is a sociologist, professor and politician who served as president of Brazil from 1995 to 2002. He is also the former chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (2011- 2016). He is currently the president of the Instituto Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the honorary president of the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB). 

Javier Corrales is a professor of political science at Amherst College. His research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, democratic backsliding, political economy of development, ruling parties, the incumbent’s advantage, foreign policies and sexuality. Corrales’ latest book, Fixing Democracy: Why Constitutional Change Often Fails to Enhance Democracy in Latin America, was published by Oxford University Press in mid-2018.

Julia Dias Leite is the CEO of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI), Brazil’s leading international relations think tank. She is also an advisor to the Foreign Trade Council (COSCEX) of the Federation of Industries of São Paulo (FIESP), the chairperson of the board of directors of Piemonte Holding and a member of the board of Elea Digital. Previously, she was the executive secretary of the China-Brazil Business Council.

Arminio Fraga is an economist and founder of Gávea Investimentos, the Institute for Health Policy Studies (IEPS) and the Social Mobility and Development Institute (IMDS), all in Brazil. He is also a member of the Group of Thirty and the Council on Foreign Relations, a trustee of Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation and former President of the Central Bank of Brazil.

Ricardo Lagos served as the president of Chile between 2000 and 2006. Prior to becoming president, he held positions within the government as minister of education (1990) and minister of public works (1994). He is currently the president of Fundación Democracia y Desarrollo and has served as a special envoy on climate change for the United Nations. He is the president of the Club de Madrid and a member of The Elders.

Richard Lapper is an independent journalist and consultant. He worked at the Financial Times between 1990 and 2015. Lapper was the newspaper’s Latin America editor between 1998 and 2008 and led the FT’s investment research service on Latin America from 2010 until 2015 and the emerging market research service between 2014 and 2015. He was also the Southern Africa bureau chief (2008-2010), capital markets editor (1994-1997) and financial news editor (1997-1998).

Eduardo Levy Yeyati is the dean of the School of Government at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and founder and academic director of its Center for Evidence-based Policy. He is also the principal researcher at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), non-resident senior fellow at Brookings and an affiliate at Harvard’s Center for International Development. Prior to that, Levy Yeyati was an adviser to the Office of the Chief of Cabinet in Argentina, chief economist at the Central Bank of Argentina and head of Latin American Research and Emerging Market Strategy at Barclays Capital.

Valeria Moy is the director of Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad (IMCO). Previously, she was the director of policy think tank México, ¿cómo vamos? and worked at Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission. Moy was also the treasury director at National Provincial Group, Mexico’s largest insurance company. Since 2001, she has taught macroeconomics at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) and the Interactive Museum of Economics (MIDE). 

María Victoria Murillo is a professor of political science and international affairs and the director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. She works on political economy, electoral behavior, public policy, and institutional weakness in Latin America and has published widely in the U.S. and Latin America. Her most recent book is The Politics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2020), co-edited with Daniel Brinks and Steven Levitsky.

Moisés Naím is a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an internationally syndicated columnist, author, and the host and producer of the Emmy award-winning television program Efecto Naím. He previously served as Venezuela’s Minister of Development, director of its Central Bank and an executive director at the World Bank. Naím was the editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine between 1996 and 2010. Naím is the author of over 14 books on international affairs, economics and politics; including “Illicit” and “The End of Power” and recently published his first novel, “Dos Espías en Caracas”. He holds a PhD from MIT.

Patricio Navia is a professor in liberal studies and assistant professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. He is also a professor of political science at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales at Universidad Diego Portales, where is director of the Magíster en Opinión Pública. He is also founding director of Diego Portales’ Observatorio Electoral, where he has been the head researcher in two Fondecyt projects.

Shannon K. O’Neil is senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an expert on Latin America, global trade, U.S.-Mexico relations, democracy and immigration and author of The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter. O’Neil also serves as a member of the board of directors of the Tinker Foundation.

Luisa Palacios is deputy research director at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She was the chairwoman of Citgo Petroleum Corporation from 2019 until early 2021. Before that, Palacios was a senior managing director and the head of emerging markets research at Medley Global Advisors, where she also led the Latin America energy practice. Palacios is part of the international faculty at the IESA School of Management and holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado served as vice president of Panama and minister of foreign affairs from 2014 to 2019. She has worked extensively on the development and implementation of public policies. Saint Malo de Alvarado was a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2019.

Thomas Shannon spent over 30 years in the foreign service, most recently as under-secretary of state for political affairs in the U.S. Department of State from 2016 to 2018. He previously served as counselor and senior adviser to the secretary following a four-year term as U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Shannon served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs from 2005 to 2009 and as special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council from 2003 to 2005.

Luis Guillermo Solís served as the 47th president of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018. He was a distinguished visiting scholar and interim director at the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University from 2018 to 2022. In 2016 he was appointed co-chair of the U.N. Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on the Economic Empowerment of Women. The author of 12 books and countless articles, he is also a member of the editorial board of the Brazilian Center of International Relations (CEBRI) Journal. Solís lives in San José, Costa Rica.

Ilona Szabó is a civic entrepreneur, author, columnist, podcast anchor, and TV commentator. She is the co-founder and president of the Igarapé Institute. Szabó also co-founded the AGORA civic movement and was the executive coordinator of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. Szabó was nominated as one of the world’s top 50 thinkers for the COVID-19 age by Prospect magazine in 2020, and as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum in 2015.

Eugene Zapata-Garesché is program team leader at the International Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ) of Germany. At GIZ, Zapata-Garesché coordinates a global initiative of the EU to foster the Territorial Approach to Local Development, promoting city, local and regional governments as development actors. Prior to joining GIZ, Zapata was global director for Strategic Partnerships and head of Latin America and the Caribbean at the Global Resilient Cities Network (R-Cities), pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, and served as senior international adviser to the mayor of Mexico City. Zapata-Garesché sits on the Board of Directors of the Tinker Foundation.