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Alberto Trejos received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. As an academic, he has been a faculty member at Northwestern University and INCAE, where he also served as Dean and as director of the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, the Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica de Barcelona, the University of California and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. He has published extensively in both academic journals and practitioner media, especially in monetary theory, macroeconomics, international trade and development.
He is currently the president of Grupo Cuestamoras, and for two decades has been part of the governance (in Costa Rica and regionally) of the financial group BAC-Credomatic. He is a partner of the consulting firms CEFSA and DRP, and has provided his services to governments, international organizations and companies in 60 countries, mainly in the Americas, Europe and Africa.
In Costa Rica he was minister of foreign trade, a position from which he led the negotiation of CAFTA. He was one of the original members of the Financial System Supervisory Council and, for almost a decade, president of CINDE, the agency for attracting foreign direct investment. He participated in the design and negotiation of the Worker Protection Law, which constituted the integral reform of the pension system.
He has been a founding director of the Brenthurst Foundation in South Africa, the Democracy Lab and the advisory board of the New York University School of Public Health. He also chaired the Arias Foundation for Peace and Democracy. He has been a judge in international disputes before the World Trade Organization.
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Alberto Trejos received his Ph.D. in economics with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. He has been a faculty member at Northwestern University, and a visiting professor at the University of Michigan and the Institut d Analisi Economica de Barcelona.
At INCAE he has served as dean and director of his think-tank, the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development. His academic work focuses on monetary economics, macroeconomics, international economics and development.
In public policy, he served as Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Trade, during which time he led the negotiation of CAFTA. He has also been president of CINDE, the investment attraction office, and a member of the National Council of Supervision of the Financial System. He participated in the design and negotiation of the pension system reform.
In private practice, he is a partner at CEFSA, the leading macroeconomic consulting firm in his country. He is a member of the board of directors of several important companies in Costa Rica, including the bank BAC San José, Corporación Cuestamoras, the newspaper El Financiero and the distributor DIPO.
Internationally, he has been a consultant and expert for governments, international organizations and companies in 50 countries in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He is a director of the Brenthurst Foundation in South Africa. He directs the International Council on the Economy for the President of Malawi, and is a member of the Board of International Advisors for the President of Mozambique.
