Professional Affiliation

Partner, Varyag Consulting Group

Expert Bio

Luis A. Rivas is Chief Operating Officer of Promerica Financial Corporation, a commercial bank network with operations in Central America, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. Previously, Luis held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Banpro, the subsidiary of Promerica in Nicaragua. Prior to his career in banking, Luis worked as Director of the Office for Economic and Fiscal Affairs in the Nicaraguan Ministry of Finance (2002–2003). In that capacity, he led the technical team in charge of macroeconomic policy and coordinated the structural reforms that led to the reduction of 90 percent of Nicaragua’s external debt under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). Luis has been a Visiting Professor of Economics at Cornell University and Vanderbilt University and has published in peer-reviewed journals and books. He holds a PhD in Economics from Cornell University.