Carlos Matus

Carlos Tulio Matus Romo (Santiago, 19 November 1931 – Caracas, 21 December 1998) was a Chilean economist and socialist politician. He served as Minister of Economy and later as President of the Central Bank of Chile during the government of President Salvador Allende.

Biography Early years Matus graduated as a commercial engineer from the University of Chile in 1955 and obtained an MPA at Harvard University, specializing in senior management and strategic planning.

From 1957 to 1959, he worked as advisor to the Minister of Finance and as Assistant Professor of Economic Policy at CEPAL/ILPES postgraduate courses in Santiago, Chile. He also participated in several technical assistance missions in planning across Latin America.

Between 1965 and 1970 he was Director of the Advisory Services Division of ILPES (United Nations – Chile), where he led the team that developed the methodology of Annual Operational Plans (POA), disseminated in Central America, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, among others.

In 1970, under President Allende, Matus was appointed President of the Compañía de Acero del Pacífico (CAP), creating a steel-metallurgical complex of more than 40 companies. He later became Minister of Economy and President of the Development Corporation Board. In May 1973 he assumed the presidency of the Central Bank of Chile, a position he held until the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, when he was removed by the military junta.

Exile After the coup of 11 September 1973, Matus was detained for two years in the concentration camps of Isla Dawson and Ritoque. On Dawson Island he worked on various construction projects with architect Miguel Lawner. During this period he began drafting Planificación de situaciones (Planning of Situations), completed in exile.

In October 1975, Matus settled in Venezuela and joined CENDES (Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo) at the Central University of Venezuela, where he worked as a researcher and advisor to the Minister of Finance. In 1978 he directed the UNDP project “Modernization of the Fiscal System” in Venezuela.

From 1982 he was consultant to CORDIPLAN, designing IVEPLAN (Venezuelan Planning Institute) and methodological innovations in the VII National Plan, the first Latin American application of Situational Strategic Planning (PES).

In 1986 he left the UN system, continuing as consultant for ILPES and the Pan American Health Organization. In 1988 he co-founded the ALTADIR Foundation, pioneering strategic planning and high management training in Latin America. He also designed advanced management courses at ILDIS (Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Germany).

As president of ALTADIR, he promoted PES methodology through teaching in Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, among others.

Written work 1972: Estrategia y plan 1977: Planificación de situaciones 1978: Bases teóricas del presupuesto por programas 1980: Guía de análisis teórico 1987: Planificación y gobierno 1987: Adiós, señor presidente 1994: El Método PES: Interview with Carlos Matus 1994: Public Reengineering 1994: On the Theory of Macro-organizations 1995: Chimpanzee, Machiavelli and Gandhi 1997: The Leader without a General Staff 1997: The Three Government Belts 1998: The MAPP Method 2000: Theory of the Social Game