His Excellency Iván Duque Márquez
Republic of Colombia
President
His Excellency Iván Duque Márquez was born in Bogotá on August 1, 1976. He is a lawyer from the Sergio Arboleda University, with major studies in philosophy and humanities. Expert in economic issues, with executive studies at Harvard, and master’s degrees from Georgetown, in Public Policy Management, and from American University, in Economic Law.
He has served as a columnist and teacher. He was head of the Culture, Creativity and Solidarity division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), leading issues of social innovation, entrepreneurship, youth and creative economy. He was a consultant to the IDB presidency and main advisor for Colombia.
As Senator, he carried out five laws of the Republic: the Orange Law, which promotes creative industries and culture as an engine of development; the Severance Law, which allows the use of severance pay to prepay the education of children and dependents; the Defibrillator Law, which requires the installation of resuscitators in public places and in emergency transport in Colombia; the ‘B Companies’ Law, which provides the conditions to create and develop Commercial Benefit and Collective Interest companies, and is co-author of the Law that extended maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks.
He is the author of the books IndignAcción, ideas for the Colombia of the Future; Monetary Sins; Machiavelli in Colombia; Orange effect; The Future is in the Center; My Father’s Archeology, and Humanism Matters. Likewise, he is co-author, along with Felipe Buitrago, of the book La Economía Naranja.
Iván Duque, in addition to his legislative activity, has stood out in various areas of current political affairs in the country. He was the one who wrote, presented and defended the lawsuit against the Legislative Act for Peace, before the Constitutional Court, which limited the fast track and allowed Congress to make changes in the implementation of the agreements with the FARC. In 2016, he was elected as one of the most prominent leaders in the country by Semana Magazine and the Colombia Líder Foundation, and during his three years as a congressman he was elected as the best Senator by his own colleagues and by various local organizations that highlight and measure the work of Colombian legislators.
President Duque is married to Mrs. María Juliana Ruiz, with whom he has three children: Luciana, Matías and Eloísa.
On June 17, 2018, Iván Duque was elected President of Colombia for the constitutional period 2018-2022, with 10,398,689 votes, and a government program based on Legality, Entrepreneurship and Equity.