Carlos Alvarado

Biography

Carlos Alvarado-Quesada served as the 48th President of the Republic of Costa Rica from May 2018 to May 2022. Under his leadership, Costa Rica contributed to global efforts to combat climate change and defended human rights, democracy, and multilateralism. President Alvarado received the 2022 Planetary Leadership Award from the National Geographic Society for his action to protect the ocean, and in 2019 accepted, on behalf of his country, the UN Environment Programme's Champions of the Earth Award. That same year, TIME named him one of its 100 Next emerging leaders shaping the future. He is currently a professor of practice at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy, a director of the Club of Madrid, and a member of the boards of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the UN Committee on Development Policy, and the Open Lunar Foundation, among other roles. His prior government service includes tenures as Minister of Labor and Social Security (2016-2018) and Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion (2014-2016). Before entering politics, he worked for Procter and Gamble, Latin America.