Speaker biographies
Mauro De Lorenzo is a resident fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, where he studies private sector-based approaches to development in postconflict and post-Socialist countries; Chinese investment and political influence outside the Pacific region, particularly in Africa; and democratic accountability in aid-receiving countries. In 2005, Mr. De Lorenzo worked as a consultant to Afghan construction companies in Kabul, and prior to that he was a research associate at both the American University in Cairo and the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala, Uganda, focusing on refugee policy and the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. In 2002, he researched and was associate producer of The Price of Aid, a BBC documentary about U.S. food aid to Africa.
Adolfo Franco is vice president for global regulatory affairs at the Direct Selling Association (DSA). From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Franco was assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Appointed by President Bush in 2001, he managed and directed the $1.5 billion annual U.S. foreign assistance program for Latin America and the Caribbean and worked to negotiate and implement the Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Mr. Franco served as an adviser to the president, secretary of state, and USAID administrator on issues involving Cuba, Colombia, Haiti, and Venezuela. Prior to his appointment at USAID, he served as chief counsel to the Chairman of the House International Relations Committee and advised committee members on global development and foreign policy matters. He has also served at the Inter-American Foundation as general counsel, senior vice president, and president. Mr. Franco is a member of the board of directors of the Inter-American Foundation and an adviser to Senator John McCain on matters related to U.S. foreign and development policy regarding Latin America and the Caribbean.
Roger F. Noriega is a visiting fellow at AEI, coordinating the Institute’s program on Western Hemisphere issues. Twice appointed by President George W. Bush (and confirmed by the U.S. Senate) and with a ten-year career on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Noriega’s breadth of experience offers strategic vision and practical insight on the Americas. As assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, he managed a three-thousand-person team of professionals in Washington, D.C., and fifty diplomatic posts to design and implement political and economic strategies in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. As U.S. permanent representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Noriega coordinated complex and sensitive multilateral diplomacy in a thirty-four-member international organization to bolster OAS efforts to promote trade, fight illicit drugs, and defend democracy. Ambassador Noriega has held various other positions, including senior policy adviser with the U.S. mission to the OAS; many program management and public affairs positions with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State; press secretary and foreign policy adviser for former representative Robert Whittaker (R-Kans.); and research assistant for the secretary of state of Kansas.
Alejandro Toledo was president of Peru from July 2001 to July 2006. He is the founder and president of the Global Center for Development and Democracy, which studies the interrelationship between poverty, inequality, and the future of democratic governance. Mr. Toledo is also Payne Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies at Stanford University and visiting scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He is also distinguished fellow in residency at the Center for Advanced Studies and Behavioral Science at Stanford. Before becoming president, Mr. Toledo worked for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations. From 1986 to 1991, he was director of the Economic Development Institute in Lima, Peru. From 1981 to 1983, he was chairman of the Economic Advisory Committee to the president of the Central Reserve Bank and the labor minister in Peru and was also general director of the Institute of Economic and Labor Studies in the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. Mr.Toledo has also served as a visiting scholar and a research associate at Harvard University and Waseda University in Tokyo.
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