Muni Figueres

Muni Figueres Former Minister of Trade for Costa Rica and step sister of Jose Maria Figueres.  "Born in Costa Rica, Ms. Figueres has held prominent positions in government and international organizations throughout her career. From 1982-1986, she was Director of Investment and Trade Promotion Agency, Government of Costa Rica, implementing policies and programs, and providing technical support to the private sector, leading to increased local and foreign investment in export led growth. From 1986-1988, she was named Minister of Foreign Trade, Costa Rica, charged with designing the policy matrix, creating the institutional framework and administering the incentives program for diversification of the export platform and markets; leading the country’s delegation in negotiating adhesion to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), precursor to the World Trade Organization (WTO), in Geneva, Switzerland. Following that assignment she was named Special Presidential Trade Representative for Costa Rica’s support towards U.S. congressional approval of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and held this post from 1988-1990.

"Ms. Figueres was named Division Chief, Trade and Integration, InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), Washington, D.C. in 1990. In 1992, she became External Relations Advisor for the Inter American Development Bank, charged with creating the instruments and administering the program for constituency building in the 46 member countries of the bank, dealing with civil society, NGO’s, business and labor, and the media. She held this post until 2001.

"Fluent in several languages, Ms. Figueres educational background includes a B.A. in Comparative Literature from City College of New York, Cours de Civilisation francaise, La Sorbonne, Paris and an MA in Political Science from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. She is a director of the Council of the Americas, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), Washington DC; the SPAU at Harvard (Academic exchange institution), Cambridge, MA., the Zamorano Agricultural College (hemispheric), Honduras, the Guanacaste Development Foundation in Costa Rica, and the Rock Creek International School.“


 * Director, International Executive Service Corps
 * Member, Human Rights Watch Americas Advisory Committee
 * Trustee, LASPAU