Latin American Executive Directors

This is the first part of a two-part  interview Nicolás Ducoté (CIPPEC’s co-founder and former Executive Director and General Director). Continuing our effort to keep the knowledge and experience within the organization and to share that experience with other think tanks through our... Read full article

This is the first part of a two-part  interview Nicolás Ducoté (CIPPEC’s co-founder and former Executive Director and General Director). You can read the first part here. A think tank is a pulley for transmission: it takes the raw material from the world of knowledge and intentionally... Read full article

The most complicated thing about communications in a think tank is changing cultures and practices, designing and implementing processes that work and allow overcoming the dichotomy between the seriousness and importance of knowledge and its dissemination. In an effort to keep the knowledge... Read full article

Supposedly a think tank does not produce knowledge for the pleasure of it, but to modify reality and impact on it. With this objective, not investing in communication is a contradiction Leandro Echt: What do you think are the main opportunities that think tanks currently have to transmit their... Read full article

There can’t be effective research without communication Leandro Echt: What is the value of evaluating policy impact from a communications point of view? LZ: The value is quite high. At the same time, it’s also a weak point that many think tanks have. Since we do not have all the... Read full article

Orazio Bellettini is the Executive Director of Grupo FARO, an Ecuadorian think tank, which he co-founded. He is a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Mason Fellow (2004), Ashoka Fellow, and, since 2008, a member of AVINA's sustainable development leaders network for Latin... Read full article

Raquel Zelaya is the President of the Board and former Executive Secretary at Asociación de Investigación y Estudios Sociales (ASIES) in Guatemala. offers a candid look at over 20 years of public life at the helm of one of the leading think tanks in Central America. She talks about the relationship between boards and managers, the importance of diversity and promoting women in think tanks, and how to manage and effective leadership transition. The interview is also in Spanish. Read full article

Javier Portocarrero is the Executive Director for the Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES). He is an economics graduate from Universidad Católica del Perú, where he also studied sociology studies and completed his Master’s studies in economics. He has been Head of the Support... Read full article

Miguel Pulido, former Executive Director of the Mexican think tank FUNDAR, talks to On Think Tanks’ Leandro Echt about his arrival to the executive direction, the initial challenges he faced in strengthening the think tank, the transition and how he intends to capitalize what he learned in for future plans. Miguel offers excellent advice to any current and future think tank director. Read full article

Fernando Masi, founder and director of CADEP, a Paraguayan think tank, talks to On Think Tanks' Leandro Echt about the origins of the centre and the challenges it faces today. Like many other founding directors, he has to steward CADEP into the hands of a new generation of think tank leaders. Read full article

Martin Benavides offers a brief yet thoughtful informal exit interview. He discusses his own career path to the top of GRADE, the challenges he faced as Executive Director, and the organisation's transition plans. He pays particular attention to the impact that the Think Tank Initiative has had on GRADE. Read full article

Miguel Pulido, former Executive Director of the Mexican think tank FUNDAR, talks to On Think Tanks’ Leandro Echt about his arrival to the executive direction, the initial challenges he faced in strengthening the think tank, the transition and how he intends to capitalize what he learned in for future plans. Miguel offers excellent advice to any current and future think tank director. Read full article

Roxana Barrantes, Director at the Institutos de Estudios Peruanos spoke to Leandro Echt about IEP and the challenges that Peru's oldest functioning think tank faces. Read full article

Roberto Fendt, Executive Director of the Brazilian think tank CEBRI, talks to On Think Tanks' Leandro Echt about his professional career, his motivations to join a think tank, the initial managerial challenges he faced, and the differences with working in the public sector. Read full article

Part 1 of 2: On Research, Communications and Credibility. Read part 2. Damien King is the Executive Director at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), as well as one of its founders. CaPRI, based in Jamaica, is an economics focused think tank, a first for the Caribbean region, as well... Read full article

Part 2 of 2. Funding challenges and CaPRI´s private sector model. Read part 1. Damien King is the Executive Director at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), as well as one of its founders. CaPRI, based in Jamaica, is an economics focused think tank, a first for the Caribbean... Read full article

Last month, I had the opportunity to travel to La Paz, Bolivia, and interview the directors and researchers of the think tanks belonging to the Think Tank Initiative: Fundacion ARU and the Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Desarrollo (INESAD). With both institutions we discussed what it is... Read full article