José Antonio Ocampo is an economist and academic, Co-Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at Columbia University. He has held important positions in the United Nations and the Government of Colombia, including United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Director of the National Planning Department. 

He has also participated in various international commissions, such as the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and the United Nations High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability. He is the author of numerous publications on economics and development and has been a professor at universities such as Yale, Cambridge, and the National University of Colombia.

Ocampo studied economics and sociology at the University of Notre Dame and earned his PhD in economics from Yale University. He has received multiple distinctions, including the Leontief Prize and Colombia’s National Science Award.