Juan Carlos Pinzón

Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón is the former minister of defense of Colombia and two-time ambassador of Colombia to the United States. He served as minister of defense for nearly four years from 2011 to 2015. Following this position, Pinzón served as Colombia's ambassador to Washington from 2015 to 2017. Between 2018 and 2021, Pinzón was president of the Foundation for the Progress of the Capital Region – ProBogotá, a private nonprofit for the promotion of public policy and long-term strategic projects for the capital region of Colombia. From 2021 to 2022 he returned to Washington to serve a second time as ambassador of Colombia. Additional previous positions include chief of staff to the president of Colombia; deputy minister of defense; senior adviser to the executive director at the board of the World Bank; vice president of the Colombian Banking Association; assistant vice president of investment banking at Citigroup; private secretary and chief of staff for the Finance and Public Credit Ministry; and economist for Colombia at Citigroup. Pinzón received an honorable mention for his outstanding academic performance while earning his bachelor of science in economics from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He also holds three master’s degrees: a master of science in economics from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; a master in public policy from Princeton University (scholarship awarded); and a master’s degree (honoris causa) in defense and national security from Colombia’s National War College. Pinzón also completed advanced courses in strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University, in science and technology policy at Harvard University, and in smart cities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Ambassador Pinzón taught economics at Universidad Javeriana and Universidad de los Andes from 1996 to 2004.