Dr. Mauricio Cárdenas is Professor of Professional Practice in Global Leadership in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and Director of the MPA in Global Leadership. He is also affiliated with Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy where he conducts research on energy and climate policy.

Dr. Cárdenas is a recognized expert on Latin America and an economist with vast academic and policymaking experience. As Colombia’s finance minister between 2012 and 2018 he led a series of fiscal reforms that cut payroll taxes, triggering an unprecedented increase in formal jobs, while also discouraging the use of tax heavens and criminalizing tax evasion for the first time.

Facing a dramatic reduction in commodity export prices and government revenues, he implemented an adjustment program based on “intelligent austerity” that preserved high investment and resulted in sharp reductions in poverty and inequality. He was chosen by Euromoney as finance minister of the year in 2015. In addition to Finance, has been a minister in four other portfolios in Colombia: Economic Development, Transport, Planning (DNP), Mines and Energy.