Arturo J. Cruz

Arturo Cruz is a Tenured Professor at INCAE Business School in Costa Rica and Nicaragua where he has taught since 1994. He was also a Visiting Professor at the Advanced School of Economics and Business (ASEN) in El Salvador and a Guest Lecturer at Duke´s Fuqua School of Business in their advanced management programs. His academic focus has been analysis of social, economic and political trends in Latin America, and he teaches analytical methods to Master´s degree students and to participants in Executive Education courses in eleven Latin American countries. Before joining INCAE, Arturo J. Cruz was a Bradley Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. In February 2007, Professor Cruz took a break from his academic career to serve as Nicaragua´s Ambassador to the United States and Canada, a post he held for two years before resigning in February 2009. In March 2010, Professor Cruz was invited to become a member of the Western Hemisphere Advisory Group to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (FMI), and in October of 2011 he joined the Americas Ambassador´Council at the Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC.

In addition to having served on the boards of directors of several banks and private companies, Professor Cruz has served as a consultant to numerous organizations including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES), the Society of Jesus, the Sanford Commission on Central America, the High Command of the Nicaraguan Armed Forces, the Salvadoran National Association of Businessman (ANEP), Grupo Pellas, Grupo Pantaléon, and the Central American Integration Bank (BCIE). He also served as Counsel to the Ministry of Economy and Trade of Nicaragua in charge of political marketing for the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S. His responsabilities included dealing with the heads of Nicaragua´s political parties to ensure passage in the Nicaraguan National Assembly and working closely with Nicaraguas´s trade advisors in Washington DC. Later he served as a Special Advisor to Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños durign the final year of his presidential term to help strengthen the outgoing President´s legacy. In El Salvador, he served as a Special Advisor for political affairs, message and image during the first two years of the presidential term of President Antonio Saca. He worked directly with the president and a team of pollsters and analysts.

Arturo Cruz earned a BA in Political Science at American University, a Masters in International Relations from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Relations (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins, and he obtained his Doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford. His book Nicaragua´s Conservative Republic, 1853-1893 was published by Palgrave Press and Saint Antony´s College in 2002, the book was translated and published in Spanish by the Colección Cultural de Centro América. In 2007 he co-authored Varieties of Liberalism in Central America: Nation-States as Works in Progress, with Forrest Colburn of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Cruz´s writings and articles on Latin America and the foreign policy of the United States have appeared in such publications as the Journal of Democracy, New Republic, Commentary, the Week in Review of the New York Times, SAIS Review, IMF publications, the Angeles Times, the Book World of the Washington Post, Revista de INCAE, Confidencial, Razón Pública, and Estrategia y Negocios, among other publications. Professor Cruz has been featured in PBS, CNN, and Al Jazeera.