Roberto Dañino Zapata

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Roberto Dañino (1951 - ) has served as Prime Minister of Peru and Ambassador to the United States. He has also served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank and has been a partner of the law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D. C. He is a prominent international attorney with more than 30 years of experience in private practice and in public service, throughout Latin America, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Dañino is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Hochschild Mining plc[1], the first Latin American company to issue shares in the main board of the London Stock Exchange.[2][3]

Previously, from 2003-2006, he was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group[4] , where he developed the legal framework for the inclusion of human rights in the agenda of the Bank, He focused his tenure on three main strategic priorities: legal client responsiveness; simplification and modernization of the Bank Group's legal documentation; and re-energizing legal advisory services, particularly in the area of justice reform.[5][6] While at the Bank, he was also Secretary General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes - ICSID, the leading investor-State arbitration center in the world.[7][8] Mr. Dañino also served as the Legal Advisor to the Board of Directors and its Ethics Committee.[9]

As Ambassador of Peru to the United States (2002–2003)[10] he was responsible for concluding the negotiation of the Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), the promotion of the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and the United States[11] the support of the multilateral financing of the Camisea project, and the negotiation of a new strategy in the fight against drugs, amongst the various issues relevant to the bilateral agenda.

Prior to his tenure as Ambassador, Dr. Dañino was the Prime Minister of Peru (2001-2002).[12] During his tenure, he led the negotiation of an unprecedented National Agreement ("Acuerdo Nacional') which brought the leading political parties, the most representative civil society organizations, and the government to agree on a set of thirty long term policies to be observed for the next twenty years.[13] He also launched an ambitious program for poverty alleviation, promotion of economic growth and established a national competitiveness program aimed at doubling non-traditional exports in three years, among other various initiatives. He was awarded the most prominent honor by the Peruvian government, la Orden del Sol del Peru, in its highest degree.

Before joining government, Dr. Dañino was a partner of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, a leading law firm in Washington, D.C., where he was the Chairman of the Latin American Practice Group. His practice focused on providing legal advice on international corporate transactions, especially foreign direct investment, project finance, capital markets transactions and international disputes settlements. For more than thirty years, Dr. Dañino participated in these types of matters in virtually every country in Latin America on behalf of a wide variety of clients, including private, public, and multilateral entities.[14] [15]

Dr. Dañino has also been a member of various corporate and non-profit boards, both in the United States and in Latin America. His board memberships have included The Coca-Cola Company Latin American Advisory Board, the Americas Society Chairman's Council[16], Carnegie Endowment's G-50 Board[17], Hochschild Mining plc[18], MiBanco[19], JER Latin American Advisory Board[20], Goldfields Peru[21], Newbridge Andean Partners, Royal & SunAlliance/Fenix, Cementos Pacasmayo[22], Sindicato Pesquero, Radioprogramas del Peru RPP[23], The Infant Nutrition Fund, The Mountain Institute[24], Peru 2021[25], Foro Iberoamerica, The Youth Orchestra of the Americas[26], Sociedad Filarmonica de Lima[27], Results for Development,[28] International Center for Research on Women[29], and The Open Society Institute[30], among others.

He also has been the founding General Counsel of the Inter-American Investment Corporation[31] in Washington, D.C. (1989-1993) and the chairman of the Inter-American Development Bank's External Review Group for Private Sector activities. Prior to moving to the USA, Dr. Dañino was a practicing corporate lawyer in Peru (1973-1989) at Barrios, Fuentes Urquiaga & Dañino, and also occupied several senior positions in the Government of Peru, including Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Trade; President of the Foreign Investment and Technology Agency; and Chairman of the Foreign Public Debt Commission.

Dr. Dañino was born in Lima, Peru in 1951, holds law degrees from Harvard University[32] and the Catholic University of Peru. He was a founding member of the Georgetown Leadership Seminar. He lectures and publishes extensively on international economic law matters, business transactions and dispute resolution. He is married, has four sons, enjoys photography, as well as collecting precolumbian and modern art.

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Preceded by
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
List of Prime Ministers of Peru
2001 – 2002
Succeeded by
Luis Solari De La Fuente