Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz

Chief Executive Officer, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) Other Organizations

Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz is co-founding Chief Executive of ICTSD. Previously, he co-founded and was General Director of Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (Quito). He has represented Colombia as a negotiator in various multilateral processes, including as permanent delegate of Colombia in Geneva and the GATT’s Uruguay Round. Earlier, he served as Principal Advisor to the Colombian Minister of Economic Development and as Chief of Administration of the Office of the President of Colombia.

Mr. Meléndez-Ortiz is the convener, with the World Economic Forum of the e15initiative, an ambitious process involving over 370 experts in looking into the possible immediate futures of the global trade system. He is co-chair of T20 Task Force on Trade, Investment (and Taxation) under Germany G20 presidency and Argentina G20 Presidency. He also serves on the boards of the Meridian Institute (US), Intellectual Property Watch (Geneva), the steering committee of DfID’s Global Trade and Finance Architecture Initiative, and as member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Trade and of the Forum’s Working Group on Trade and Climate Change. In the past, he has served on the U.N. Secretary General Millennium Project Task Force on Trade, and the WTOʼs Director General Advisory Group. Since 1997, he has been the publisher of BRIDGES, and a regular speaker worldwide on trade, sustainable development and global economic governance.

Some of Mr. Meléndez-Ortiz most recent publications include “Strengthening the Global Trade and Investment System in the 21st Century: Synthesis Report” (ICTSD and WEF, 2016) ; “Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) ; “Rebuilding Global Trade: Proposals for A Fairer, More Sustainable Future”(with C. Deere, Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford U. and ICTSD, 2009); “Agricultural Subsidies in the WTO Green Box: Ensuring Coherence with Sustainable Development Goals” (Cambridge U. Press, 2009); “Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development: Development Agendas in a Changing World” (Edward Elgar, 2010); and “Dispute Settlement at the WTO: The Developing Country Experience (Cambridge U. Press, November 2010). A Decade in the WTO: Implications for China and Global Trade Governance (ICTSD, December 2011) Mr. Meléndez-Ortiz studied at U. de los Andes (Bogota), Harvard University and the Said Business School at Oxford University.