Jose Octavio Bordon

José Octavio Bordón is Ambassador of the Argentine Republic to the United States of America

"Mr. José Octavio Bordón was appointed Ambassador of the Argentine Republic to the United States of America in June 2003.

"He earned a Bachelor's degree (Licenciatura) in Sociology from the Universidad del Salvador, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1970.

"His public service career started in 1983 when he was elected Congressman for the province of Mendoza to the House of Representatives, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and headed the Ibero-American Parliamentary Group to the 74th World Parliamentary Conference in Ottawa, Canada, in 1985.

"Mr. Bordón was elected Governor of the province of Mendoza, serving from 1987 until 1991, when he was elected Senator for the same province for the 1992-1996 term. While in the Senate, he chaired the Committee on Culture and was Vice Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on MERCOSUR.

"As a presidential candidate in Argentina's 1995 national election, Mr. Bordón finished in second place with 30% of the vote. He later served as Minister of Culture and Education of the province of Buenos Aires from 1999 until 2001. In 2002-2003, he was Executive Director of the Social and Economic Development Program, a joint initiative of the Argentine government and the Inter-American Development Bank.

"Mr. Bordón came to Washington, DC in 1992 as a research fellow of the Wilson Center, and at that time also taught as a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He was a consultant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1997, as well as an Eisenhower Fellow along with his wife Mónica. He worked as a consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank from 1998 until 1999, and again in 2003.

"His affiliations with international institutions include: member of the Advisory Council to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank on Latin-America Integration (INTAL) from 1989 till 1993; President of the International Commission on Education, Equity and Economic Competitiveness of PREAL since 1996; member of the Inter-American Dialogue since 1990; member of the Argentine Council for International Relations in Argentina (CARI) since 1989 and member of its Executive Committee since 2005; member of the Pacific Council on Foreign Relations, based in San Francisco, CA, since 1995.

"Mr. Bordón was Professor of Political Sociology at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1972-1976 and again in 1983-1995. He has been President of Fundación Andina since 1982. He was Director of Diálogo y Perspectiva Internacional magazine in 1989-1994, and Director of Temas de MERCOSUR magazine in 1996-2000. He has lectured in many universities in the U.S. and Latin American, European and Asian countries. He has written books and articles published in newspapers and magazines.

"Mr. Bordón has been married to Monica Gonzalez Gaviola, a Sociologist specialized in Education and Information Systems, for 34 years; they have 3 children and one grandchild."