Mauricio Claver-Carone was elected President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on September 12, 2020. He also chairs the Board of Executive Directors of IDB Invest, the private-sector arm of the IDB Group, and the Donors Committee of IDB Lab, the Bank’s incubator for innovative development projects. Under his leadership, the Bank has developed a blueprint for post-pandemic recovery and prioritized efforts to avert another “lost decade” in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since his inauguration on October 1, 2020, Mr. Claver-Carone has led an unprecedented response to the immediate impact of COVID-19, including $1 billion to support countries’ vaccine purchases and distribution plans, and a first-of-its-kind guarantee to help countries better compete to obtain the lifesaving shots.
He spearheaded the creation and implementation of Vision 2025 – Reinvest in the Americas: A Decade of Opportunity , a strategy to jumpstart recovery in the region and accelerate sustainable, inclusive growth. Approved by the Board of Governors in March 2021, it identifies five key areas for development that will guide the Bank’s efforts: integration and nearshoring; digitalization; support for small businesses; gender equality; and climate change. To better leverage private financing opportunities in these areas, Mr. Claver-Carone launched the largest private-sector coalition in the history of the IDB, which has grown to include more than 120 global corporate executives.
Internally, he has led an ambitious reform and modernization effort, including initiatives to improve operational efficiency, productivity and transparency to enable better results, impact and monitoring. He has prioritized a digital transformation of the Bank’s work and the development a new human capital strategy that are under way.
Prior to joining the IDB, Mr. Claver-Carone served as Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council. In this capacity, he was the U.S. President’s principal advisor on issues related to Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. During this period, he conceptualized a whole-of-government economic growth initiative, América Crece (“Growth in the Americas”), which led to the creation of energy and infrastructure finance frameworks with nearly half of the nations in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also spearheaded the first White House-led Western Hemisphere Strategic Framework for U.S. inter-agency policy guidance and development since 2004.
Mr. Claver-Carone previously served as the United States Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he represented the United States, as the largest shareholder on the IMF’s Executive Board. In this capacity, he worked with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. inter-agency to effectively present policies regarding foreign exchange practices, debt transparency and trade to the Executive Board and to IMF management. He also played an important role in lending arrangements for Argentina, Barbados and Ecuador, and revolving credit lines for Colombia and Mexico.
From 2017 to 2018, Mr. Claver-Carone served as Senior Advisor for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he was a principal policy advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and
to the Under Secretary for International Affairs on geo-political, national security and economic issues. He was a key figure in developing the bipartisan Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act of 2018, which created the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
Prior to his government service, Mr. Claver-Carone was Executive Director of Cuba Democracy Advocates in Washington, D.C., a non-partisan organization dedicated to the promotion of human rights, free markets and the rule of law. He was also host of the bilingual foreign policy show “From Washington al Mundo” on Sirius-XM Radio and the co-founder of a data-software start-up company.
Mr. Claver-Carone began his career as an Attorney-Advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, where he provided counsel on banking laws, capital requirements and securitizations. He was also a Clinical Assistant Professor at The Catholic University of America’s School of Law, an Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University’s National Law Center and a Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Law Center for the Americas.
Mr. Claver-Carone earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Rollins College, Juris Doctor from The Catholic University of America, and Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University Law Center.
He is a native speaker of English and Spanish.
