Ricky Rosselló

Early life and education

Rosselló was born 1979 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the son of Pedro Rosselló, a doctor, and Maga Nevares, and is the youngest of three brothers including Juan Oscar (b. 1971) and Luis Roberto (b. 1973). He attended Colegio Marista de Guaynabo. Rosselló's paternal great-grandfather Pedro Juan Rosselló Batle immigrated in 1902 at the age of 23 from Lloseta, Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, Spain; his brother Juan had also arrived a year earlier. During his high school years he was an athlete and a three-time junior tennis champion in Puerto Rico. He was selected to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiads.

He earned a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in biomedical engineering and economics, and a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. As a college student he served as president of the Association of Puerto Rican Students at MIT and was the winner of the Dean’s Office award for outstanding leadership and community service. Additionally, he was the recipient of the office of minority “academic excellence” award and was the youngest deputy leader in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 2000.

As a researcher in college, Rosselló focused on adult stem cell research.

After graduation, Rosselló worked as a researcher at Duke University. His work in the stem cell research area has been subject of several awards, such as the Biomaterials Conference STAR Award and has been recognized as a Scholar by the International Society of Neurobiology. His works have been published in several academic journals, including the Communicative & Integrative Biology Journal and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a co-founder of Beijing Prosperous Biopharm, a medical company established in Beijing, China, that has developed various designer drugs aimed at cancer, prostate cancer, neurodegeneration problems, diabetes and HIV. He has presented his research in various international conferences, including the Society for Biomedical Engineering, Orthopedic Research Society, and the Society for Biomaterials, where he was awarded two STAR research awards for outstanding research. His findings suggest a potential strategy to improve cell-cell communication in 3D, implying that both targeted delivery and cell-based strategies can be used as treatments to enhance communication in 3D living tissue, which can have a significant impact in tissue engineering and cancer therapy.

Political career

Rosselló became involved in politics during the 2008 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election, when his father Pedro Rosselló lost a party primary against the eventual Governor Luis Fortuño. As a Democrat, Rosselló was a Hillary Clinton delegate to the 2008 nominating convention and an Obama delegate to the 2012 convention. In 2008, he had a key role in Clinton's get-out-the-vote efforts for the June 1 Puerto Rico presidential primary, appearing in her final TV ad with several democratic and Puerto Rican political leaders.

Following this event, Rosselló became a political commentator, writing columns for El Vocero, a daily newspaper published in San Juan, covering politics, science, healthcare and economics topics. Additionally, Rosselló appeared as a regular guest analyst in several political radio talk shows.

Ricardo also published a book that depicted the accomplishments of his father’s administration (1993–2000). All copies of the limited edition print were exhausted in one day. To diffuse the message, he allowed the material to be public domain, and published it on the La Obra de Rosselló website for everyone to read.

In 2012, Rosselló founded Boricua ¡Ahora Es!, a political advocacy group that advocates changing Puerto Rico's current political status. The movement featured a grass-roots educational campaign, suggesting that involvement of the international community may be necessary for the United States government to take action. Boricua ¡Ahora Es! actively campaigned during the 2012 Puerto Rico status referendum.

Gubernatorial campaign

Since 2012, Rosselló was mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate for the 2016 election cycle. During 2013, Rosselló began organizing a group of collaborators to build what he called Plan para Puerto Rico (Plan for Puerto Rico). This plan would serve as a blueprint to deal with the economic and political problems and Puerto Rico and by being built years before a candidacy, it would represent a more complete and realistic political agenda.

During 2014, Rosselló utilized his political platform to perform several protest events against the policies of incumbent Governor of Puerto Rico Alejandro Garcia Padilla. Some of these events included a march against a proposed Value Added Tax.

On September 19, 2015, he confirmed his intention to run for Governor of Puerto Rico in the 2016 election, and held a campaign rally the next day at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan that surpassed the previous attendance record held by Ricky Martin. At the rally, he endorsed Jenniffer González, a Republican, for Resident Commissioner.

On June 5, 2016, Rosselló won the New Progressive Party primary against incumbent Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, thus becoming the party's candidate for governor and heading to the general election against PPD candidate David Bernier. Rosselló made Puerto Rican statehood the central issue of his campaign, and he views statehood as the key to economic recovery.

On November 8, 2016, Rosselló defeated five other gubernatorial candidates and was elected Governor of Puerto Rico, receiving 41% of he vote. He was sworn in on January 2, 2017.

First days

Rosselló announced the designation of several of his members for the 17th Cabinet of Puerto Rico. Amongst these, he selected William Villafañe to be his Chief of Staff and Michelle Hernandez to be the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police.

Domestic policies

On his first day as governor, Ricardo Rosselló signed six executive orders. His first executive order was the OE-2017-001, decreeing a state of fiscal emergency. The second order was the OE-2017-002, which creates the COF with the intent of obtaining, maximizing and overseeing more federal funds. The third executive order, OE-2017-003, looks to streamline the permit obtaining process for development of projects that promote a new or improved infrastructure for the lending of services for the citizens and for economic development within Puerto Rico. The fourth executive order, OE-2017-004, creates an interagency group of projects critical for the infrastructure, a collateral effect of the OE 2017-003. The fifth executive order, OE-2017-005, orders the implementation of the method of zero base budget for the preparation of the budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018. The last executive order Rosselló signed on his first day was the OE-2017-006, it decrees a public policy within the Government of Puerto Rico that guarantees equal pay for equal job for women employees.

Views on statehood

Rosselló is strongly in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico. "Colonialism is not an option .... It’s a civil rights issue ... The time will come in which the United States has to respond to the demands of 3.5 million citizens seeking an absolute democracy," he said. In January 2017 he announced that Puerto Ricans will be given an opportunity to vote in the fifth plebiscite on June 11, 2017, with two options: "Statehood" and "Independence/Free Association". It will be the first referendum not offer the choice of "Commonwealth", which is the status quo.

Benefits of statehood include an additional $10 billion per year in federal funds, the right to vote in presidential elections, higher Social Security and Medicare benefits, and a right for its government agencies and municipalities to file for bankruptcy. The latter is currently prohibited.

At approximately the same time, Puerto Rico's legislators are also expected to vote on a bill that would allow the Governor to draft a state constitution and hold elections to choose senators and representatives to the U.S. Congress. Regardless of the outcome of the votes, Congress will be the body to make the final decision on the status of Puerto Rico.

Economic strategies

By the time Rosselló took office, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government which was saddled with outstanding debt of $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with a 45 percent poverty rate and 14.2% unemployment that is more than twice the mainland U.S. average.

The Commonwealth had been defaulting on many debts, including bonds, since 2015. Rosselló discussed the situation and sketched out his plans in an interview with the international Financial Times in mid January and indicated that he would seek an amicable resolution with creditors and also make fiscal reforms. "There will be real fiscal oversight and we are willing to sit down. We are taking steps to make bold reforms. ... What we are asking for is runway to establish these reforms and have Washington recognise that they have a role to play." He also implemented austerity measures, instructing Puerto Rican government agencies to cut operating expenses by 10 percent and reduce political appointees by 20 percent. To ensure that funds would be available to pay for "essential" government services Rosselló signed a fiscal emergency law on January 28, 2017 that would allow for setting aside funds that might otherwise be required for debt payments.

In late January, the federal control board created under PROMESA gave the government until February 28 to present a fiscal plan - including negotiations with creditors - to solve the problems. It is essential for Puerto Rico to reach restructuring deals to avoid a bankruptcy-like process under PROMESA. A moratorium on lawsuits by debtors was extended to May 31.

Rosselló hired investment expert Rothschild & Co to assist in convincing creditors to take deeper losses on Puerto Rico's debts than they had expected. The company was also exploring the possibility of convincing insurers that had guaranteed some of the bonds against default, to contribute more to the restructuring, according to reliable sources. The governor also planned to negotiate restructuring of about $9 billion of electric utility debt, a plan that could result "in a showdown with insurers". Political observers suggest that his negotiation of the electrical utility debt indicated Rosselló's intention to take a harder line with creditors. Puerto Rico has received authority from the federal government to reduce its debt with legal action and this may make creditors more willing to negotiate instead of becoming embroiled in a long and costly legal battle.

Personal life

Rosselló is the youngest of three brothers. He married Beatriz Isabel in 2012. Their first daughter, Claudia, was born on August 21, 2014. On October 2016 Beatriz announced her second pregnancy. He has gone to South America to work alongside other stem cell doctors in developing better stem cell treatment.

Controversy

Ricardo Roselló claimed to have developed various drugs, but later made clear they are still in the research phase of development. He was accused by Bolivian author Lupe Andrade of plagiarizing her column titled “Responsabilidad y democracia” (Accountability and Democracy). He denied her claims and no legal action followed.

Research

Books