Sergio de la Cuadra

Sergio de la Cuadra Fabres (5 January 1942 – 5 October 2021) was a Chilean economist and politician, a member of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI).

He served as President of the Central Bank of Chile and as Minister of Finance during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

Family and education De la Cuadra was born in Santiago de Chile on 5 January 1942, the son of Adriana Fabres Pinto and the former radical minister and deputy Marco Antonio de la Cuadra Poisson, and the brother of Arturo de la Cuadra Poisson, who served as intendant of the provinces of Aysén and Magallanes.

He served as Vice President of the Central Bank of Chile between 1977 and 1981, and as its President from 1981 to 22 April 1982, when he was appointed by Pinochet as Minister of Finance, a position he held until 30 August of that year. After leaving the Finance Ministry, he joined the legislative commissions of the Military Government Junta.

Among other activities, he was partner and president of Forecast Consultorías e Inversiones S.A., an economic advisory firm he co-founded with economist Ángel Cabrera. He was also an active promoter of Chile’s capital markets through various sectoral studies and publications. He served as a director of several companies, including the Banco de Chile, where he was part of the board that oversaw its restructuring after the 1980s financial crisis; he served on that board from 1987 to 1989.

He also served on the boards of the Electronic Stock Exchange of Chile, Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM), Viña Concha y Toro, Banco Monex, Iansa, and Pesquera Itata (later Blumar, after the merger of Itata and El Golfo). He also served on the boards of Ceresita, Petroquim, and Forestal y Papelera Concepción. In academia, he was a member of the Council of Economics and Management at the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and worked as an international consultant for various Latin American countries.