Profile

José Antonio Ocampo

• Professor of Professional Practice and International Affairs
  Committee on Global Thought
  Columbia University

José Antonio Ocampo is Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs and Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University since 2007. Mr. Ocampo holds a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from the University of Notre Dame (1972), and a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University (1976). He has served as Executive Director of FEDESARROLLO, the main think tank on economic issues in Colombia, Director of the Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico of Universidad de los Andes, Professor of Economics at Universidad de los Andes, and Professor of Economic History at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He has also been Visiting Professor at Cambridge, Oxford and Yale Universities. In the political realm, he served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs from September 2003 to June 2007. As such, he headed the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which produces a wide range of research and analytical work on development issues, leads the follow-up to the major UN Summits and Conferences, and provides substantive and organizational support to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Second and Third Committees of the General Assembly. He also chaired the UN Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs. Previously, he was Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) from January 1998 to August 2003, and held from 1989 to 1997 a number of high-level posts in the Government of Colombia, including Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Director (Minister) of the National Planning Department, and Minister of Agriculture. Mr. Ocampo is author or editor of over 30 books and has published over 200 scholarly articles on macroeconomic theory and policy, international financial issues, economic development, international trade, and Colombian and Latin American economic history.