Luis Alberto Moreno Keynote Speaker

Former President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Colombia’s ambassador to the United States (1998-2005)
Member of the International Olympic Committee

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Luis Alberto Moreno's Biography

Luis Alberto Moreno has been one of the most prominent players on the global financial and multilateral scene and is respected as one of the great connoisseurs of the current reality of Latin America and a significant promoter of its development.

Currently, he serves as Managing Director at Allen & Co LLC, a private investment bank based in New York, a position he has held since February 2021. Moreno is the former President and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB), the leading and principal source of long-term financing for Latin America and the Caribbean—a position he held for 15 years. During his tenure, Moreno transformed the IDB by increasing the Bank’s financial strength through optimized capital use, revamping its private sector affiliations (IDB Invest) and innovation laboratory (IDB Lab), standardizing gender and diversity objectives in public and private sector programs, advancing the adoption of new technologies and innovation to enhance operational impact and efficiency, and leading the organization through an unprecedented operational response supporting member countries during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before joining the IDB, Moreno served as Colombia’s Ambassador to the United States from 1998 until 2005, leading bipartisan and bilateral assistance initiatives including Plan Colombia, a program to fight drug trafficking and promote social and economic recovery. He previously served as Colombia’s Minister of Economic Development and as a strategic advisor to leading private sector organizations.

Moreno is a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum, a member of the International Olympic Committee, and a member of the Latin American Conservation Council. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and on the Boards of Directors of Coca-Cola FEMSA and Nubank, a private digital bank.

Moreno has received numerous accolades for his leadership and public service, including Colombia’s highest peacetime decoration, the Grand Cross of the Order of Boyacá; the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service; the Clinton Global Initiative Global Citizen Award; and the Atlantic Council’s Leadership Award.

Highly qualified in development finance, public policy, and social, economic, and institutional development, Moreno has an established record of advocacy for gender and diversity objectives. He leads numerous initiatives benefiting the global community, including advances in renewable energy and environmental protection, healthcare access, climate resilience and adaptation, sustainable cities, and digital connectivity and innovation.

Moreno is married to María Gabriela Sigala and has two children, Nicolás and Natalia Moreno Foglia. In addition to his native Spanish and English, he speaks Portuguese and French.

Bold ideas for a richer, more just, further integrated region in the world, and infinitely happier

Latin America is an enigma. While the media publishes headlines about protests, crime, inequity, populism, and debt, those seven hundred million people who live and work in this region face a reality that is infinitely more complex, amazing, and, on several occasions, encouraging.

Few people understand this duality more intimately than Luis Alberto Moreno. After being at the heart of political, diplomatic, and corporate activity in the southern hemisphere for over three decades, Moreno gives us a valuable journey through countries with accelerated transformations that resist conventional interpretation.

Through his friendship with youth, mayors, academics, business executives, artists, chefs, heads of State, and small entrepreneurs, Moreno highlights the paradox of a continent where frustration coexists with creativity, patriotism, solidarity, and hope.