JOSE ANTONIO OCAMPO, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF ECLAC

27 January 1998

Press Release
SG/A/666
REC/17*

JOSE ANTONIO OCAMPO, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF ECLAC

19980127 Biographical Note José Antonio Ocampo of Colombia, who has been appointed by Secretary- General Kofi Annan as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), assumed his new duties on 1 January.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Ocampo was the Minister of Finance and Public Credit. He has held two other ministerial posts -- Minister of Agriculture, from 1993 to 1994; and Minister of Planning, from 1994 to 1996.

Mr. Ocampo began his career in 1976 at the Centre for Development Studies at the Universidad de los Andes as a researcher. He became Director of the Centre in 1980, a post he held until 1982.

In 1983, Mr. Ocampo began a decade-long affiliation with the Foundation for Higher Education and Development (FEDESARROLLO), working as Deputy Director (1983-1984) and later as Executive Director (1984-1988), when he also served on the organization's Board of Directors and as a Senior Researcher.

He was National Director of Colombia's Employment Mission (1985-1986), and advisor to the Colombian Foreign Trade Board (1990-1991). In addition, he has served as advisor to the Colombian National Council of Entrepreneurial Association and been a member of the Technical Commission on Coffee Affairs, the Public Expenditure Commission, the Advisory Commission for Fiscal Reform and the Mission on Intergovernmental Finance. He has worked as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the United Nations.

Mr. Ocampo was awarded a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1972 and a doctorate from Yale University in 1976. In 1987, he was appointed a member of the Colombian Academy of Economic Science, and the following year he was awarded the National Science Prize. He has served as a visiting fellow at Oxford University and Yale, and as a visiting researcher assigned to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

In addition to serving as the director of several academic journals, Mr. Ocampo has published widely on a number of subjects, including economics, politics, commerce and trade.

Born on 20 December 1952, Mr. Ocampo is married and has three children.

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__________ * Press Release REC/15 of 8 December 1997, should have been REC/16.