Roberto Dañino Zapata

Roberto Dañino 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 has served as Secretary General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes - ICSID, and as the first General Counsel of the InterAmerican Investment Corporation (IIC). He is an international attorney with more than 35 years of experience in private practice and public service. He currently serves in boards in Peru, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, and the United States.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Dañino was born in Lima, Peru in 1951, holds law degrees from Harvard University and the Catholic University of Peru. He often lectures on international economic law matters, business transactions and dispute resolution. He is married with Pauline Beck since 1980, has four sons, enjoys films, photography, and the outdoors, as well as collecting precolumbian and Peruvian modern art.

CURRENT WORK EXPERIENCE

He is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Hochschild Mining plc, (HOC) the first Latin American company to issue shares in the main board of the London Stock Exchange.. HOC is a precious metals producer with activities in Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Chile. He is also Chaiman of the Board of Fosfatos del Pacífico and board member of Cementos Pacasmayo, , both companies are part of the Hochschild Group and are listed in the Lima Stock Exchange.

In addition, Mr. Danino also serves as independent director in various corporate and non-profit boards in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa. His current board memberships in Peru include MiBanco, AFP Integra (ING), Gold Fields La Cima (Peru, Grupo RPP(Radioprogramas del Peru),. He is also an independent director at Gold Fields Inc. (South Africa), PetroNova (Canada), Results for Development (USA), and The Youth Orchestra of the Americas (USA),.

He is a member of the Colegio de Abogados de Lima, the New York and Washington DC Bars (as Special Legal Consultant), the Harvard Int'l Alumni Association and the London Court of International Arbitration.

PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE

From 2003-2006, he was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group, where he developed the legal framework for the inclusion of human rights in the agenda of the Bank. He focused his tenure on three areas: legal client responsiveness; simplification and modernization of the Bank Group's legal documentation; and legal advisory services, particularly in the area of justice reform. 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. Mr. Dañino also served as the Legal Advisor to the Board of Directors and its Ethics Committee .

As Ambassador of Peru to the United States (2002–2003) he was responsible for concluding the negotiation of the Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), the launching of the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and the United States the support of the multilateral financing of the Camisea project, amongst the various issues relevant to the bilateral agenda.

From 2001 to 2002, Dr. Dañino was the Prime Minister of Peru. During his tenure, he led the negotiation of the 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. 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.

Before joining government, Dr. Dañino was a partner of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, now Wilmer Hale, 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-five 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.

He also has been the founding General Counsel of the Inter-American Investment Corporation 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.

He has also belonged to the boards of The Coca-Cola Company Latin American Advisory Board,the Americas Society Chairman's Council,[23], Royal & SunAlliance/Fenix, Sindicato Pesquero, Compañía Minera Milpo, JER Latin American Advisory Board,[24] International Center for Research on Women,[25]The Infant Nutrition Fund, The Mountain Institute,[26] Peru 2021,[27] Foro Iberoamerica, VBPartners, Newbridge Andean Partners, the Carnegie Endowment's G-50 Board,[28], The Open Society Institute.[29] and Sociedad Filarmonica de Lima,[30], among others. He has also served in the Brookings Commission for a Partnership for the Americas.[31]

HONORS

In 2003, Dr. Dañino was awarded the highest honor by the Peruvian government, la Orden del Sol del Peru (Gran Cruz). He has also been awarded the Order of Isabel La Catolica by the King of Spain. In 2004, the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru awarded him the Distinguished Alumnus Medal. In 2010, the Prime Minister of Peru awarded him the Citizenship Merit Medal.

References

Preceded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

List of Prime Ministers of Peru 2001 – 2002

Succeeded by Luis Solari De La Fuente