Alejandro Huertas’ interest in development was initiated early in his career when he worked as Director of Innovation and Quality for a nongovernmental organization in his native Colombia. His task was to promote economic opportunities with a value chain approach that connected farmers in remote rural communities, many affected by the Colombian conflict, with agribusinesses. His experience in the agricultural sector took him to the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he worked for more than eight years as Senior Rural Development Advisor leading procurement and implementation of projects in rural development, including good governance at the municipal level, access to finance, value chain development and land formalization. The intersectionality between economic growth and governance has played an important role in his trajectory up to now.

With more than 15 years of professional experience, Alejandro contributes to or leads technical design efforts for DAI in the Latin American region in governance and economic growth. He is also responsible for delivering on project commitments to high-quality work as Project Team Director.

• MSc., management and economics of innovation, Chalmers University of Technology
• BSc., agro industry production engineering, La Sabana University