For 32 years, I worked as a foreign correspondent in Latin America, covering the most important political and economic news. Living in Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Mexico gave me a unique opportunity to observe the region’s dramatic evolution up close: its move from repressive military governments to today’s vibrant, if imperfect democracies; its step away from hyperinflation and debt defaults toward fiscal prudence; its ambivalent but inescapable adoption of free-market policies.

My main interest is studying and writing about ways that citizens, business, governments and international financial institutions can work together to reduce poverty and improve education, health, competition and the rule of law so that the entire region--including North America--can achieve its full potential. After spending the last 18 years as BusinessWeek magazine’s chief Latin America correspondent based in Mexico City, I joined the Inter-American Development Bank in August 2011 in Washington, D.C. as its chief of global media relations. My goal is to help a worldwide audience understand the dramatic transformation that Latin America has undergone over the past three decades: Taming public finances, improving education and health indicators, opening borders to international trade and expanding representative democracy.

My specialties include economic development, macroeconomics, international trade, foreign investment, off-shoring and outsourcing, resource nationalism, immigration, micro-finance, poverty and corporate philanthropy.