Can President Kirchner Overcome
the Political and Economic Obstacles to
Achieving Sustained Growth?
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Ambassador Eduardo Pablo Amadeo
Eduardo P. Amadeo was appointed Ambassador of Argentina to the United States of America in December 2002. He completed his mission to the United States. Prior to becoming Ambassador, he served as Deputy Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers and as Spokesperson for President Eduardo Duhalde. He served as Secretary for Social Development, a Cabinet -level position (1994 - 1998), and as Secretary for the Prevention of Drug Addiction and Control of Drug Trafficking (1998), implementing the first comprehensive statistical system for drug demand in the country, under the administration of President Carlos Menem. In 1994, he became a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He was elected to Congress as a Representative for the Province of Buenos Aires in 1991, where he became President of the Education Committee and secured the approval of the Federal Education Law and the Law for Superior Education. In 1987, he took the reins of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires, the second-largest bank in Argentina, as President and CEO, and steered it through the worst inflationary crisis of the country’s history. He was appointed President of the National Institute for Industrial Technology (INTI) in 1975, at the time the main governmental research and development institute.
Ambassador Amadeo received his Degree in Economics from Catholic University, in Buenos Aires in 1970. He has kept his private practice as an economist and consultant on institutional relations, mergers and acquisitions, and advising private business on investment projects. He is an active member of the Justicialista Party, a member of the Chairman’s International Advisory Committee at the Council of the Americas - Americas Society, and of the Social Equity Forum, an advisory group to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank. He has taught various courses at FLACSO (Latin American College on Social Sciences) and Catholic University in Buenos Aires, and at the Ecole Polytechnique of the University of Montreal. He frequently writes columns in Argentina’s newspapers and has contributed articles for various books.
Ambassador Amadeo speaks fluent English and French. His hobby is classic car racing.
James J. Carragher
James Carragher has been Director for the Office of Brazil and Southern Cone Affairs since September 2002. Prior to assuming this position, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Santiago, Chile. He began his overseas experience in Chile as well, as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1968-1970. He joined the Foreign Service in 1975, following two years as an English teacher in Paris. His first assignment was to the Dominican Republic as a Vice Consul from 1975-77. He then served as a Political Officer in Pretoria/Cape Town, South Africa from 1978-81. After a year as an international Affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Carragher worked for two years in Washington at the Department of State. He became Political-Military officer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1984 and served there until 1988. Returning to Washington, he worked in the Operations Center as a Senior Watch Officer for one year, before being named Deputy Director and then Director of the Operations Center. He next served as Deputy Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs. Following that two-year assignment, he became Political Counselor in San Salvador from 1993-95 and his first Deputy Chief of Mission Assignment was in Harare, Zimbabwe, from August 1995 to July 1998. Mr. Carragher was born in Batavia, New York, August 16, 1946. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968 and a M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine in 1972. He is married to Dana Dee Ponte Carragher. They have two daughters and a son.
Professor Gonzalo Sebastian Paz
Gonzalo Sebastián Paz is a professor at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he teaches a course on the Economic and Political Development of Argentina since Independence.
During 1998-2000, Professor Paz was Secretary of Graduate Studies at the University of Management and Social Sciences (UCES), in Buenos Aires. He has been an Associate Professor of International Affairs at the La Plata National University (1998-2002). During this time he was also an Associate Professor and Researcher at the University of Salvador, in Buenos Aires. Previously he had been Associate Professor at the Rio Cuarto National University, in the province of Córdoba, teaching “Theory of International Relations.”
Professor Paz was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, as well as a Global Leader Fellowship, in 2002. He is a native Spanish-speaker, is fluent in English and can read Portuguese. His hobbies are karate-do, kendo, sailing, windsurfing, water skiing, hiking, and soccer.