Manuel Rapoport will be in charge of Finance and Administration, Santiago Levy of Sectors and Knowledge

Washington, United States of America – The Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) 2008-02-21 announced the appointment of Manuel Rapoport as Vice President of Finance and Administration, and Santiago Levy Algazi as Vice President of Sectors and Knowledge, effective March 1st.

Vice President of Finance and Administration

As the new IDB Vice President for Finance and Administration, Rapoport will have responsibility over several departments, including Budget, Administration and Corporate Procurement, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology and Legal Counsel.

Rapoport has had a distinguished career at the IDB. He joined the institution in 1973. During his career at the IDB he was appointed Manager of the Strategic Planning and Budget Department in 2000; Manager of Regional Operations in 2005 and General Manager of the Country Department for the Southern Cone in 2007. He has also been a member of numerous high-level task forces and working groups in the Bank on administration and personnel, budget, oversight and evaluation, loan and management operations procedures, re-tooling and private sector organization.

Rapoport graduated in International Business and also holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.from the American University in Washington, D.C.

Vice President of Sectors and Knowledge

Santiago Levy Algazi, IDB Chief Economist and General Manager of the Bank’s Research Department, will be responsible in his new position as Vice President of Sectors and Knowledge for coordinating the dissemination of knowledge and training, both internally and externally in the organization, and the development of knowledge partnerships and exchanges within the IDB and with relevant organizations and academic and policy networks.

Levy, who has distinguished himself as a public official, academic researcher and university professor, designed the conditional cash transfer program known as Oportunidades, which assists more than 5 million of Mexico’s poorest households by investing in education, health and nutrition and has inspired other countries interested in finding effective strategies to fight poverty.

Before the IDB Levy was a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC; general director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, deputy minister at the Finance Ministry, president of the Federal Competition Commission and director of the Economic Deregulation Program at the Trade Ministry. Levy was a tenured professor and director of the Institute for Economic Development at Boston University, where he received undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees in economics. He conducted postdoctoral research at Cambridge University and taught at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

The IDB is the leading source of multilateral financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2007 the IDB Group approved operations totaling more than US$9.6 billion.