The Sol M. Linowitz Forum, established in 1996, is dedicated to improving the quality of debate and communication on Western Hemispheric issues. The forum pays tribute to Ambassador Linowitz, the Dialogue’s founding chairman, and assembles Dialogue members once every two years to address the most important issues affecting the Americas. 

At the forum, Dialogue members meet in plenary sessions, probe their differences, identify cooperative solutions to regional problems, and develop consensus proposals for action. 

Drawing on these discussions, the Dialogue produces a policy report that reviews the main issues and offers recommendations for policy and action – for governments, international organizations, and private groups. The report is published and widely circulated throughout the hemisphere. 

The most recent meeting of the Sol M. Linowitz Forum was held from June 27-29, 2019 in Washington, DC. The meeting marked the twenty-first meeting of the Dialogue’s members in plenary. Members discussed a range of pressing topics, including opportunities for sustainable growth, challenges to democracy and rule of law, US politics and foreign policy, and US-Latin American relations in the age of Trump.

“Agenda 2020: Hemispheric Cooperation in Uncertain Times”

Thursday, June 27    Residence of the Ambassador of Colombia, Francisco Santos

Friday, June 28       The Willard InterContinental Hotel     

Saturday, June 29    The Willard InterContinental Hotel

Dialogue Members

Sebastián Acha is executive director of PRO Desarrollo Paraguay, an association working to improve the country’s business climate. He was previously a representative in the Congress of Paraguay, and he founded Tierra Nueva, a rural development non-profit.

Bernard Aronson is a founder and managing partner of ACON Investments. In 2015, President Barack Obama named him special envoy for the Colombian Peace Process. Aronson was assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs during the Bush and Clinton administrations.

Alicia Bárcena is a Mexican biologist who now serves as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). She was under-secretary-general for management for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and acting chef de cabinet for Secretary-General Kofi Annan; undersecretary of the environment in the federal cabinet; and director of Mexico’s National Institute of Fisheries.

Catalina Botero Marino is a Colombian attorney who previously served as special rapporteur for freedom of expression for the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She is now dean of the Law Faculty at the University of the Andes and founding partner of Dejusticia Colombia, a non-profit focused on the regional defense of human rights.

José Octavio Bordón is currently serving as Argentina’s ambassador to Chile. He was governor of the province of Mendoza and a presidential candidate in the 1995 national elections. Bordón also served as ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007. Bordón is a Dialogue member-on-leave.

Julieta Castellanos is director of the Instituto Universitario en Democracia, Paz y Seguridad. Before She was rector of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, from 2009 to 2017, and served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission following the ousting of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. In 2013, the State Department awarded Castellanos the International Women of Courage Award.

Fernando Cepeda Ulloa is a professor of political science at the University of the Andes. Among many cabinet and diplomatic posts, he has served as minister of government, chargé d’affaires to the United States, ambassador to the United Kingdom, France, and Canada, and permanent representative to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

Oscar Chacón is co-founder and executive director of Alianza Americas, an umbrella of immigrant-led and immigrant-serving organizations in the United States. Before that, he served in leadership positions at the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Boston-based Centro Presente, and several other community-based and international development organizations.

Joyce Chang is global head of research at JP Morgan Chase & Co. Previously, she served as global head of fixed income, emerging markets, and index research. Before joining JP Morgan, Chang was a managing director at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers.

Laura Chinchilla is co-chair of Inter-American Dialogue board of directors and she was president of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She previously served as vice president and minister of justice under President Óscar Arias and was a member of the National Assembly from 2002 to 2006.

Lee Cullum is a journalist and currently hosts CEO, a series of interviews with leaders from the world of business, produced by PBS in Dallas-Fort Worth. She regularly contributes columns to the Dallas Morning News.

José María Dagnino Pastore is an Argentine economist and former minister of economy and labor. He served as head of the National Development Council and ambassador-at-large in Europe. He has taught at various universities, including the University of Buenos Aires, Harvard University, and the Catholic University of Argentina.

Karen DeYoung is associate editor and senior national security correspondent for The Washington Post, where she has served as bureau chief for Latin America, foreign editor, bureau chief in London, national editor, White House correspondent, and assistant managing editor for national news.

Julio Frenk is a Mexican physician currently serving as president of the University of Miami. He is the university’s first Hispanic president. Previously, Frenk was dean of faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and, before that, minister of health of Mexico under president Vicente Fox.

Enrique García was president and CEO of CAF – Development Bank of Latin America until April 2017, when he stepped down after 25 years in the position. He served as minister of planning and coordination and head of the economic and social cabinet of Bolivia from 1989 and 1991. García was also an officer of the Inter-American Development Bank for 17 years.

George Gray Molina is chief economist of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York. In his home country, he was the coordinator of the Bolivian Human Development Report Office and the lead author for four National Human Development reports between 2004 and 2008.

Rebeca Grynspan is secretary general of the Ibero-America General Secretariat (SEGIB). She previously served as a UN under-secretary general and the associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Grynspan was vice president of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998.

Carla A. Hills served as trade representative in the George H.W. Bush administration and as secretary of housing and urban development in the Ford administration. She is currently chair and CEO of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm.

Roberta Jacobson is a senior advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group. She was Ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018 and served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemispheric affairs from 2012 to 2016. Jacobson held many leadership positions during her 30 years of distinguished diplomatic experience.

Earl Jarrett was appointed chief executive officer of the restructured mutual holding company, The Jamaica National Group. He is also chairman of the JN Foundation and deputy chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Jim Kolbe was a member of the House of Representatives (R-AZ) from 1985 to 2007. While in Congress, he served for six years on the House Budget Committee and for 20 years on the Appropriations Committee. He is now a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund and senior advisor to McLarty Associates.

Abraham F. Lowenthal, the founding director of the Inter-American Dialogue and of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin America Program, is professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Southern California and president emeritus of the Pacific Council on International Policy.  He has been decorated for contributions to inter-American affairs by the presidents of Brazil, Peru and the Dominican Republic.

Susana Malcorra served as foreign minister of Argentina from 2015 to 2017. She was chief of staff of the UN Secretary General between 2012 and 2015 and the UN under-secretary general for field support from 2008 to 2012. She also served as chief operating officer and deputy executive director of the World Food Program. Before that, Malcorra worked for the private sector for more than 25 years.

Shannon O’Neil is vice president, deputy director of studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an expert on Latin America, US-Mexico relations, global trade, corruption, democracy, and immigration.

Pierre Pettigrew served as Canada’s minister of foreign affairs from 2004 to 2006 and as minister for international trade from 1999 to 2003. He chaired several working groups on international trade negotiations and led trade missions to China, India, Russia, Germany, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria, Mexico, and elsewhere. Pettigrew is currently executive advisor at Deloitte & Touche and Government of Canada special envoy for the Canada-European Union Trade Agreement.

Jacqueline Pitanguy is founding executive director of CEPIA, a non-profit dedicated to promoting human and civil rights in Brazil. She is also president of the Governing Council of the Brazil Fund for Human Rights. From 1986 to 1989, Pitanguy held a cabinet position as president of the National Council for Women’s Rights.

Jorge Quiroga was president of Bolivia and previously served as minister of finance and vice-minister of international cooperation and public investment. He has held several private sector positions in Bolivia and the United States, and is currently president of FUNDEMOS, a public policy institute in La Paz.

Andrés Rozental is president of Rozental & Asociados, a consulting firm in Mexico City. He was founding president of the Mexican Council for International Relations and served as deputy foreign minister, Mexico’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and to Sweden, and permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva.

Carlos Saladrigas is chairman and CEO of Regis HR Group, a professional employment organization, and chairman of the Cuba Study Group. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Progress Energy and Advance Auto Parts. Previously, Saladrigas was chairman of Premier American Bank.

Thomas Shannon is co-chair of Inter-American Dialogue board of directors and he was undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2016 to 2018. In early 2017, Shannon served as acting secretary of state until President Trump’s nominee was confirmed. He was a career diplomat in the Foreign Service and has served in embassies around the world.

Maria Fernanda Teixeira is a Brazilian businesswoman with over thirty years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, she was president of First Data Brazil and chief operating officer of First Data Latin America. She is the founding president of the Group of Executive Women of São Paulo, with over 300 members. She also serves on the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development.

Roberto Teixeira da Costa is a Brazilian businessman currently serving on the Board of SulAmérica. He was previously a board member of Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDESPAR) and chairman of the Latin America Business Council. Da Costa founded the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission and the Brazilian Center for International Relations.

Priscila Vansetti is the director of global strategy and business development in the agriculture division of DowDuPont. She was president of DuPont Brasil from 2015 to 2017 and held leadership positions in development and marketing at DuPont in Wilmington, DE, and as director of business of DuPont Canada.

Roberto Veiga González is a Cuban lawyer and magazine editor. In May 2014, Veiga and Lenier González founded Cuba Posible, a civil society project and platform for political dialogue and analysis in Cuba, where Veiga currently serves as director.

Invited Guests

Elliott Abrams is now special representative for Venezuela at the Department of State. Under President Reagan, he was assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, assistant secretary for human rights and humanitarian affairs, and assistant secretary for inter-American affairs.   

Guillermo Areas is head of government relations and external affairs, Representative Office Latin America and the Caribbean, for BMW.  He has previously held leadership positions at Bayer and DHL. He has worked to develop conditions for electric vehicles in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and other markets

Carlos Ayala was president of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights from 1997 to 1998. He has been a human rights defender and advisor in national and international organizations and has taught Constitutional Law and Human Rights at multiple universities around the world.

Inés Bustillo is director of the United Nations ECLAC Washington Office. She joined ECLAC in 1989 and has worked on topics that include macroeconomic analysis, international trade, and finance.  

Augusto de la Torre is adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, where he is also co-professor for their MPA in Economic Policy Management. He was the World Bank’s chief economist for Latin American and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the bank in 1997, he was president of Ecuador’s Central Bank and an IMF economist.

Ron Elving is senior editor and correspondent on the Washington Desk at NPR. He is also a professorial lecturer and executive in residence in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He was previously the political editor for USA Today and for Congressional Quarterly.

Susan Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes a weekly column on life in Trump’s Washington. She founded Politico Magazine and became editor of Politico. She also served as editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine and at The Washington Post and Roll Call.

Eric Jacobstein is the senior policy advisor to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs handling the Western Hemisphere portfolio for Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY).  He has served as staff director of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control under Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Before that, he worked for the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ). He also served as manager of legislative affairs at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Landon Loomis is a special advisor for the Western Hemisphere and global economics in the Office of Vice President Mike Pence and a foreign service officer on detail from the Department of Commerce. He served as commercial officer at the Embassy in Brasilia. Before that, he was a policy advisor at USTR and served a five-year tour in Beijing. Loomis has lived and worked in ten foreign countries across Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Loomis speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin Chinese.

Amy Myers Jaffe is a David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for Energy and the Environment and director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations. She served as executive director for energy and sustainability at the University of California, Davis. Jaffe was founding director of the Energy Forum at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and its Wallace S. Wilson fellow for energy studies.

Andrew Selee is the president on the Migration Policy Institute. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at the Woodrow Wilson Center, where he founded the Center’s Mexico Institute and later served as vice president for programs and executive vice president.

Chad Wolf is the senior official performing the duties of the under secretary and the assistant secretary for strategy, plans, analysis, and risk in the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans of the Department of Homeland Security.  His policy development and strategic planning portfolio includes counterterrorism, border security, immigration, cyber and international engagements.  In 2018, Secretary Nielsen appointed Wolf chief of staff for the Department. 

Sol M. Linowitz was a distinguished lawyer, buisnessman, and diplomat. A man of extraordinary achievement, Ambassador Linowitz served as a counselor to various presidents, congressmen and women, and world leaders. Amongst his many notable accomplishments was the negotiation of the Panama Canal treaties during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. In 1998, Ambassador Linowitz was awarded the Presdiential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, who said, in a speech, ”If every world leader had half the vision Sol Linowitz does, we would have about a tenth as many problems as we’ve got in this whole world today.” Ambassador Linowitz confounded Xerox Corporation, serving as its chairman for several years. From 1966 to 1969, he was appointed as the United States’ representative to the Organization of American States and and, later, in 1979, as the United States’ special ambassador to the Middle East. Ambassador Linowitz served on the Board of Trustees of his alma matter, Cornell University, and as president of the National Urban League. He authored two books, “The Making of a Public Man: A Memoir” and “The Betrayed Profession.” Ambassador Linowitz passed away on March 18, 2005 at his home in Washington, DC. The Dialogue inagurated the Sol M. Linowitz Forum in 1996 to recognize and commemorate his exceptional career in service to democracy and cooperation among the nations of the Americas.