Alejandro Gaviria

Alejandro Gaviria Uribe (born 25 June 1965) is a Colombian economist and engineer, serving as the Minister of National Education of Colombia since 7 August 2022, replacing María Victoria Angulo. He also served as Minister of Health and Social Protection of Colombia from 2012 to 2018. He is the former Rector of the University of Los Andes (Colombia), where he served from 2019 to August 2021. He was Dean of the School of Economics at University of los Andes in 2006, until his appointment as Minister in 2012. Prior to his academic career, Gaviria served as Deputy Director of the National Planning Department of Colombia, as well as Deputy Director of the Foundation for the Higher Education and Development (Fedesarrollo), a private non-profit policy research centre, and as a Researcher at the Inter-American Development Bank. He is a published author of several books and scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Career

Minister of Health and Social Protection On 30 August 2012, President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón announced the designation of Gaviria as Minister of Health and Social Protection of Colombia. Gaviria was sworn in on 3 September 2012 succeeding Beatriz Londoño Soto. On 7 August 2018, he was succeeded by the medical doctor and surgeon Juan Pablo Uribe Restrepo under the government of president Iván Duque Márquez.

Personal life Gaviria was born in 1966 in Santiago, Chile, to Juan Felipe Gaviria Gutiérrez and Cecilia Uribe Flórez. He is married to Carolina Soto Losada, former High Presidential Counsellor for Government, Private Sector and Competitiveness of Colombia. He has two children, Mariana Gaviria and Tomas Gaviria. On 6 September 2017, it was announced he was being treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Gaviria identifies as an atheist.

Selected works

Gaviria Uribe, Alejandro (2016). Alguien tiene que llevar la contraria. Ariel. Gaviria Uribe, Alejandro (2018). Hoy es siempre todavía. Ariel. Gaviria Uribe, Alejandro (2019). Siquiera tenemos las palabras. Ariel. Gaviria Uribe, Alejandro (2020). Otro fin del mundo es posible. Ariel. Gaviria Uribe, Alejandro (2021). En defensa del humanismo. Ariel. Gaviria Uribe, Alejandro (2023). La explosión controlada: La encrucijada del líder que prometió el cambio. DEBATE