Rubens RICUPERO (Board Member, 2010-present)

Rubens Ricupero, Brazil, was born in São Paulo in 1 March 1937, and studied Law at the University of São Paulo.

He was a Professor of Theory of International Relations at the University of Brasilia and of History of Brazilian Diplomatic Relations at the Rio Branco Institute, the Brazilian Diplomatic Academy. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Economics and International Relations of Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), in São Paulo.

Rubens Ricupero was, between 1995 and 2004, the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Before that, he had been Minister of Finance and Economy of Brazil (1994), supervising in that capacity the preparation and launching of the new currency, the real, that brought to an end more than 30 years of chronically high inflation in the country.

In 1993-94, Rubens Ricupero was Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Amazonian Affairs, an area where he had accumulated a long experience as, among other functions, Chairman of the Negotiation Group on Finance, during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Rio Climate Summit, in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro.

He was a career diplomat and represented Brazil in the United States (1991-1993), Italy (1995), and at the GATT and the UN in Geneva (1987-1991). He was Brazil’s ambassador and chief negotiator during most of the duration of the Uruguay Round of the GATT (1987-1991), and occupied all the main posts of the GATT, as Chairman of the GATT Development Committee (1989), Chairman of the GATT Council of Representatives (1990), Chairman of the GATT Contracting Parties (1991), Coordinator and spokesperson for the Informal Group of Developing Countries in the GATT (1988-1992).

He also served as Deputy-Chief of the Presidential staff and Special Adviser to Brazil President Tancredo Neves-José Sarney (1985-1987).