José Antonio Ocampo

In 2022, President of Colombia Gustavo Petro appointed him as Minister of Finance.

On 23 March 2012, Ocampo was nominated by Brazil as a candidate to lead the World Bank. Ocampo's native Colombia declined to endorse his bid, however, and with limited backing he withdrew from the race on 13 April 2012 and swung his support behind Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

His most recent books include The Economic Development of Latin America since Independence, with Luis Bértola (forthcoming 2012); the Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics, edited with Jaime Ros (2011); Time for a Visible Hand: Lessons from the 2008 World Financial Crisis, edited with Stephany Griffith-Jones and Joseph E. Stiglitz (2010); Growth and Policy in Developing Countries: A Structuralist Approach, with Lance Taylor and Codrina Rada (2009); and Capital Account Liberalization and Development, edited with Joseph E. Stiglitz (2008).

From 2008-2010, he was co-director of the UNDP/OAS Project on “Agenda for a Citizens’ Democracy in Latin America”. In 2009, he was a Member of the Commission of Experts of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.

His past books include Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization and Development, with Joseph E. Stiglitz et al. (2006); Regional Financial Cooperation (2006); International Finance and Development (2006); Globalization and Development: A Latin American and Caribbean Perspective (2003); the three-volume Economic History of Twentieth Century Latin America (2000), edited with Enrique Cárdenas and Rosemary Thorp; and more than ten editions of Historia Económica de Colombia (2007), originally published in 1977, and considered to be the best known text on the subject.

In the political realm, he served in 2003-2007 as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. As such, he chaired the UN Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs and headed the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which produces a wide range of research and analytical work on development issues, leads the follow-up to the major UN Summits and Conferences, and provides substantive and organizational support to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the General Assembly.

Previously, from 1998 to 2003 he was Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and from 1989 to 1997 he held a number of high-level posts in the Government of Colombia, including Minister of Finance and Public Credit, and as such, Chair of the Central Bank's (Bank of the Republic) Board, Director of the National Planning Department, and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Ocampo graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1972 with BAs in Sociology and Economics, in 1976 he received his PhD in Economics from Yale University with his dissertation Capital accumulation and international relations.

José Antonio Ocampo Gaviria (born 20 December 1952) is a Colombian writer, economist and academic who was the professor of professional practice in international and public affairs and director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University from July 2007 to August 2022. Prior to his appointment, Ocampo served in a number of positions in the United Nations and the Government of Colombia, most notably in the United Nations as Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Executive Secretary for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Colombia as Minister of Finance and Public Credit and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.