Ricardo Lagos
Former President of the Republic of Chile
Mr. Ricardo Lagos was President of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He played an important role in the
recovery of democracy in Chile in his positions as the President of the Democratic Alliance, the
Founder of the Party for Democracy, and as President of the Chile XXI Foundation. He had a
number of roles at the United Nations as Ambassador in 1971 and 1972, and as a consultant with
UNDP and UN University. From 1978 to 1984, he was the chief economist for the International
Labor Organization Regional Employment Program for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1990,
he was appointed Minister of Education in Chile where he initiated major reforms for access to
education, and from 1994 to 1998, he was Minister of Public Works. Mr. Lagos earned his PhD
in Economics from Duke University. From 1957 to 1972, he served at the University of Chile as a
Professor, and as Director of the School of Political Science and Administration, and the Institute of
Economics. In 1969, he was elected Secretary-General of the University. Mr. Lagos was the Director
of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Buenos Aires, as well as the Regional Director
of CLASCO, a UNESCO-UNDP project.