Jose J. Villamil
Estudios Técnicos, Inc.
Chairman of the Board & CEO
Mr. Villamil is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Estudios Técnicos, Inc., a private economics and planning consulting firm. He served as Chairman of the Board of BBVAPR from 1998 to 2012, and was Director and Chairman of PonceBank between 1991 and 1998. His studies in Economics and Regional Science were at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He has taught at various universities, including the University of Puerto Rico, Harvard University, the Institute of Development Studies (UK), the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del Perú, Universidad Nacional del Sur in Argentina, the Universities of Sao Paulo and Brasilia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers University.
Mr. Villamil has been Chairman of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce, the Inter American Planning Society and the Puerto Rico Economics Association. He has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Boards of the Ponce School of Medicine, St. John’s School, the Ana G. Méndez University System, and the National Puerto Rican Coalition in Washington, D.C., as well as the Board of Economists of Hispanic Business, and the Council of Economic Advisers of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation. He was founding Director of both the Puerto Rico Community Foundation and the Aspen Institute’s Non-Profit Sector Research Fund, in Washington, DC and was a member of UNESCO’s Group of Experts on Urbanization in Latin America.
He is currently a member of the Board of Governors of United Way of Puerto Rico, served on the Board of the Corporación de Microfinanzas, a joint venture of the Puerto Rico Economic Development Bank and the BBVA Foundation, and has been a board member in a number of private firms. He serves on the Advisory Board of various firms and organizations. Mr. Villamil served as Chair of the Puerto Rico-2025 Commission in 2004 and the Strategic Planning Committee of the State Human Resources and Occupational Development Council and has belonged to the Governor’s Economic Advisory Councils under various Administrations. He has been a consultant to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Organization of American States, and the Latin American Institute of Economic and Social Planning.
Mr. Villamil’s published work includes books and articles on economic development, globalization, small island systems, environmental issues, and social development subjects. He has published articles in several professional journals including the Journal of the American Institute of Planning, El Trimestre Económico (Mexico), Revista Interamericana de Planificación, Cuadernos de la Sociedad Colombiana de Planificación, PLERUS (Puerto Rico), the IDS Bulletin (UK), Northeast Regional Science Review, Revista de Relaciones Internacionales (Chile), the Bulletin of the UN Environment Program, and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His books on globalization and on small economies were published by Harvester Press in the UK, Academic Press in the U.S., Ediciones SIAP in Buenos Aires and El Fondo de Cultura Económica in México. He has also contributed to a number of books on subjects such as hemispheric economic relations, economic planning, enterprise zones, environmental issues, the economy of Puerto Rico, tourism and Caribbean economic subjects.
Mr. Villamil has received numerous awards, including the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for his work on development of small economies. In 2013, United Way of Puerto Rico awarded him the Antonio R. Barceló award for his contributions to the non-profit sector in Puerto Rico. The Department of Urban Planning in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) recognized him and three other previous Presidents of the Inter-American Planning Society for their contributions to planning in Latin America. The Universidad Metropolitana awarded him an Honorary Doctorate for his contributions to Puerto Rico’s economic development.