Federico Gutiérrez is serving his second term as mayor of Medellín, Colombia. In October 2023, he received more votes than any mayoral candidate in the city’s history: more than 689,000, or 73 percent of the total.

Gutiérrez holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of Medellín and specializations in senior management and political science from the Pontifical Bolivarian University. During his first term as mayor (2016–2019), Gutiérrez, known popularly as “Fico,” was ranked the country’s top mayor by most local governance performance surveys.

Gutiérrez began his career in public service as a university student, serving on Medellín’s Municipal Youth Council and Municipal Planning Council, and was later elected to two consecutive terms on the Medellín City Council. In 2009, the Junior Chamber of Colombia named him Outstanding Young Person of the Year in the category of political, legal, and governmental affairs. He has also worked as a consultant on comprehensive urban security for the cities of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Celaya, Mexico.

In 2022, Gutiérrez ran for president of Colombia with the Creemos movement, receiving more than five million votes. In 2023, Creemos obtained legal status as a political party.

Gutiérrez has described politics as a way to solve social problems and public service as a tool to help people. His governance model emphasizes citizen trust, institutional strength, and collaboration among the public sector, private sector, academia, and civil society.

Gutiérrez will be awarded the Youth Opportunity and Crime Reduction Award at the 2026 Leadership for the Americas Awards Gala.