Andres Valenciano

Andrés Valenciano is the CEO of Democracia+, a network of organizations that inspire and develop political leadership of integrity committed to democracy across the ideological spectrum.

He previously led the Washington, D.C. Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), where he worked at the intersection of regional development, economic policy, and multilateral cooperation.

Prior to that, as Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Trade, he was responsible for trade policy, investment promotion, and engagement with the WTO. In this role, he positioned Costa Rica as the world’s top destination for greenfield FDI, modernized the Free Trade Zone regime, and oversaw the country’s accession to the OECD. Earlier in his career, Valenciano served as Executive President of Costa Rica’s National Institute of Learning (INA), leading a major institutional transformation to expand access to technical and vocational education, including the passage of a landmark Dual Education Law. He also directed several NGOs, delivering projects in education, health, housing, and economic development across more than 12 countries and three continents, in partnership with organizations such as PAHO, IADB, UNDP, and ILO.

Alongside his executive roles, he is Senior Research Advisor at the TIDE Center (Oxford University), a Steering Committee Member for the Planetary Health Institute (Johns Hopkins University) and the Remaking Trade Project, and an Advisory Board Member for Programa Estado de la Nación in Costa Rica. He holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Costa Rica, a Master’s in International Business from The Fletcher School, a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and is a Senior Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.