Raja Rajamannar
Senior Fellow & Former CMO of Mastercard | Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author of Quantum Marketing | 2025 ARF CMO Award & Forbes CMO Hall of Fame
Andres Velasco
Dean, LSE School of Public Policy | Former Finance Minister of Chile | Member, Group of Thirty | Author, The London Consensus
Andrés Velasco is one of the rare economists who has both theorized fiscal policy and executed it under fire. As Chile's Finance Minister, he banked a copper windfall against fierce opposition, then deployed it through the 2008 global crisis — a playbook now studied worldwide. Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy and member of the Group of Thirty, he gives senior audiences the tools to read political economy and act decisively.
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Andres Velasco biography
Andrés Velasco is one of the most distinguished economist-practitioners of his generation: a scholar who has held chairs at Harvard, Columbia, and the London School of Economics, and a policymaker who ran a G20 economy’s finances through a commodity supercycle and a global financial crisis. Born in Santiago and educated at Yale (BA in economics and philosophy, MA in international relations) and Columbia (PhD in economics), he conducted postdoctoral work in political economy at both Harvard and MIT before beginning a career that has moved fluidly between the academy, government, and international institutions.
Economics speaker Andrés Velasco served as Chile’s Minister of Finance from March 2006 to March 2010 under President Michelle Bachelet — a four-year tenure that produced what many economists now regard as a textbook case in counter-cyclical fiscal management. When copper revenues surged following a global commodities boom, Velasco resisted intense political pressure to spend and instead directed the windfall into two sovereign wealth funds: a Pension Reserve Fund and an Economic and Social Stabilization Fund. When the 2008 financial crisis hit and copper prices collapsed, those savings financed a stimulus package of subsidies and tax cuts that cushioned Chile’s economy and accelerated its recovery. The Financial Times, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg all covered the episode extensively. He was named Latin American Finance Minister of the Year by Emerging Markets magazine and Most Innovative Leader of the Year by Latin Trade. His approval ratings, initially among the lowest in the cabinet, ended among the highest in the country.
The London Consensus and a New Framework for the Global Economy
After his ministerial term, Velasco ran for the Chilean presidency in the 2013 primaries, finishing second to Michelle Bachelet. He has since built one of the most influential policy careers in international economics, holding the Sumitomo-FASID Professorship at Harvard Kennedy School, a professorship at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and since 2018, serving as the inaugural Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy. He is a member of the Group of Thirty — the selective forum of sitting and former central bank governors, finance ministers, and senior economists — and served on the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance. His most recent book, The London Consensus: Economic Principles for the 21st Century (LSE Press, 2025), co-edited with Tim Besley and Irene Bucelli, proposes a principles-based alternative to the Washington Consensus, drawing contributions from economists including Dani Rodrik, Philippe Aghion, and Hélène Rey.
As a speaker, Andrés Velasco offers something with no real equivalent in the speaker market: the analytical precision of a leading academic economist combined with the firsthand institutional memory of someone who made the decisions. He does not describe fiscal crises from the outside — he navigated one from the finance ministry, with full exposure to the political constraints, institutional mechanics, and real-time uncertainty that textbook models omit. His keynotes give boards and senior leadership teams the tools to distinguish durable geopolitical and economic trends from short-term political noise, and to understand the structural forces that will shape growth, capital allocation, and policy risk in the years ahead.
Andres Velasco Speaking Videos
Andres Velasco - Fiscal Policy in an Emerging Market Economy
Andres Velasco - Ending Dictatorship and Building Democracy
Andres Velasco Keynote Topics
In 2006, Andrés Velasco made one of the most politically costly decisions of his career: he refused to spend Chile's copper windfall and built a sovereign wealth fund instead. Two years later, that fund financed the stimulus that protected Chile through the worst global financial crisis in decades. This keynote draws on that firsthand experience to explore what sound fiscal policy looks like in practice — not in theory — and what leaders in the public and private sectors can learn from a government that chose institutional discipline over short-term political reward. The lessons extend well beyond Chile: to any organization that must make decisions today about risks that will materialize tomorrow.
The economic architecture that defined the post-Cold War era — open trade, stable multilateral institutions, low inflation, and deep capital markets — is under sustained pressure. Velasco draws on his current work at the LSE, his membership in the Group of Thirty, and his analysis for The London Consensus to give senior audiences a clear, rigorous map of where the international economic order is genuinely fracturing and where the alarm is overstated. This is not a geopolitical tour — it is a practitioner's guide to distinguishing durable structural shifts from short-term political noise, and building strategies that hold across multiple scenarios.
The Washington Consensus — the set of policy prescriptions that shaped development economics for a generation — was built for a world that no longer exists. In this keynote, Velasco presents the intellectual case for a new framework: one built on principles rather than prescriptions, and anchored in wellbeing, resilience, institutional legitimacy, and political context. Drawing on The London Consensus (LSE Press, 2025) and contributions from leading economists including Dani Rodrik and Philippe Aghion, this talk challenges policymakers and business leaders to think differently about what good economic governance looks like — and what decisions it demands.
Economic policy is rarely made the way textbooks describe. It is made by governments facing elections, ministries navigating institutional constraints, and reformers balancing technical optimality against political feasibility. Velasco — who has been all three simultaneously — gives executive audiences a framework for reading the political economy behind fiscal and monetary decisions: understanding why governments do what they do, where the real risks lie in regulatory and policy environments, and how organizations can build strategic resilience against the forces that textbook economic models consistently underestimate.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Andres Velasco
Why Andrés Velasco?
Booking Andrés Velasco means bringing to your leadership event one of the few people in the world who can speak about fiscal policy, economic crisis management, and global financial governance not as an academic observer but as a decision-maker who lived it. As Chile's Finance Minister, he made the politically unpopular call to save a copper windfall rather than spend it — and that decision protected Chile's economy when the 2008 global financial crisis arrived. That story is not a case study for him. It is his personal record. As Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy, member of the Group of Thirty, and author of The London Consensus, he now operates at the very center of the global conversation about what economic frameworks are fit for the challenges ahead. For boards and C-suite audiences navigating a world of geopolitical disruption, deglobalization, fiscal stress, and shifting trade rules, Velasco offers something rare: rigor, credibility, and practical experience in the same person. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check availability.
What did Andrés Velasco do as Chile's Finance Minister?
Velasco served as Chile's Finance Minister from 2006 to 2010, a period that encompassed both a major commodity boom and the 2008 global financial crisis. His most consequential decision was to resist political pressure to increase public spending during the copper price surge and instead channel the windfall into two sovereign wealth funds. When the crisis hit and copper revenues collapsed, those savings funded a counter-cyclical stimulus program — subsidies, tax cuts, and emergency spending — that helped Chile weather the downturn more effectively than most economies in the region. The approach earned him recognition as Latin American Finance Minister of the Year from Emerging Markets magazine, and has since been studied as a model of responsible fiscal management in resource-dependent economies.
What is the Group of Thirty?
The Group of Thirty is a private, nonprofit international body composed of senior representatives of the public and private sectors and academia. Its members are typically sitting or former central bank governors, finance ministers, and leading economists from major economies. Membership is by invitation and limited in size, making it one of the most selective forums in international finance and economic policy. Velasco's membership reflects his standing as one of the most respected economist-practitioners in the world, alongside peers including former heads of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England.
What topics does economics speaker Andrés Velasco cover?
Velasco speaks on global macroeconomic risk and the international economic order, fiscal policy and crisis management, Latin American political economy, the future of multilateral institutions and global governance, economic policy design in politically constrained environments, and the ideas behind The London Consensus — a principles-based framework for economic policy in the 21st century. His keynotes are tailored for board-level and C-suite audiences, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, and organizations seeking a rigorous, practitioner-grounded perspective on the economic and geopolitical forces shaping strategy. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau for program options and availability.
How to book Andres Velasco as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Andres Velasco as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Andres Velasco's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Andres Velasco or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Andres Velasco speaking fee?
Andres Velasco speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Andres Velasco to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Andres Velasco.
How can I contact Andres Velasco?
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Can I book Andres Velasco for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Andres Velasco is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Andres Velasco for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
