President Alvaro Uribe Velez President Alvaro Uribe Velez | Name Luis Plata | |
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Preceded by Jorge Humberto Botero Angulo Succeeded by Sergio Diaz-Granados Guida Preceded by Angela Maria Orozco Gomez Succeeded by Maria Elvira Pombo Holguin | ||
Luis Guillermo Plata Páez is a Colombian Business Administrator who served as Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia from 2007 to 2010 and before as President of Proexport from 2002 to 2007, both during the administration of president Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
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Personal life
Luis Guillermo Plata is married to Lyana Latorre and have one son, Guillermo, he is a biking enthusiast and an avid traveller. In 2006 he was selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum, he has been nominated for three consecutive times as one of the Top Business Leaders in Colombia, and the Government of Colombia has bestowed upon him the Order of Merit to Democracy, in the grade of Grand Commander, and the Order of St Charles, in the grade of Grand Officer.
Plata graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Business Administration, and received his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Career
Plata began his career in the public service in the early 90's in the Trade Office of the Embassy of Colombia in Tokyo where he eventually became the Director of Proexport’s commercial office in Tokyo, then took charge of the agency’s office in Taipei, with responsibility also as correspondent for Hong Kong.
In 1999, he moved to Silicon Valley where he Co-founded Simplexis.com, an e-procurement solutions provider for public sector institutions with an initial focus on educational institutions, with former Governor of Tennessee and U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and three other Harvard Business School MBA graduates. In 2001, Plata returned to Bogotá, where he worked with McKinsey & Company as an associate consultant.
In 2002, after having worked for Álvaro Uribe Vélez's successful campaign during the Colombian presidential election as Executive Director and Legal Representative, the President-elect nominated Plata for the post of President of Proexport, a government agency responsible for the definition and execution of the strategy to fuel Colombia’s economic growth through Trade, Tourism and Foreign Direct Investment. After taking office, Plata streamlined the agency by closing and relocating Proexport offices abroad, including the offices the closure of the Tokyo and Taipei offices where he began his career, and putting an emphasis on other to work from the Colombian Embassies to reduce the red tape in trading abroad; A new payment plan was put in place, that changed the pay scheme to link trade growth and investment to employee's salaries to generate productivity.
On October 2006, President Uribe nominated Plata to replace Jorge Humberto Botero Angulo as Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. Plata took office on January 16, 2007 vowing to continue pushing for the United States – Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Plata served in this post until Uribe left office on August 7, 2010.