Iván Duque

Iván Duque Márquez served as President of Colombia from 2018-2022, during which time he oversaw the country’s response to COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent challenges. Campaigning under the theme of “legality, entrepreneurship, and equality,” other issues he focused on during his tenure include human migration, higher education, environmental protection, infrastructure, and drug-related crime.

The youngest elected President in Colombia’s history at the age of 41 in 2018, he is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Transformational Distinguished Fellow at Oxford University, a Distinguished Fellow at WRI, a Leadership Fellow at FIU, a Distinguished Fellow at the Bezos Earth Fund, and an Ambassador for the World Coalition for Nature. He is a global expert in sustainability, conservation, green finance, and energy transition.

Duque’s public career began as an advisor at the Colombian Ministry of Finance in 2000, where he served in Washington, DC as Colombia's senior advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) between 2001 and 2010. He took a brief absence to join the panel investigating the Israeli incursion of the ship Mavi Marmara, and then returned to the IDB as head of the Culture, Creativity, and Solidarity Division from 2011 to 2013.

He served as senator from 2014-2018, where he promoted five laws on the extension of maternity leave, promotion of electric mobility, availability of defibrillators in public places, creation and promotion of the figure of BIC companies (Benefit of Collective Interest), and promotion of creative industries (Orange Law). He resigned his seat in the Senate to devote himself to the presidential campaign.

Duque is the author of several books including "Monetary Sins" (2007); "Machiavelli in Colombia" (2010); "Orange Effect" (2015); "IndignAction" (2017); "The Future Is at the Center" (2018); "Archaeology of My Father" (2018); "Humanism Matters" (2019); and "Road to Zero" (2021). He co-authored two books on the creative economy with Felipe Buitrago, which include "The Orange Economy: An Infinite Opportunity" (Inter-American Development Bank, 2013); and "Orange Economy: An Infinite Reality" (Ministry of Culture of Colombia, 2021).