Julio Guzman

Location: Washington DC, USA

Dr. Julio Guzman is a Senior Fellow of the Governance Action Hub at R4D and the Director of International Programs, School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. As such, he advises the Director Office on strategies and program design in the areas of governance, democracy, and the rule of law. Julio has over twenty years of experience at the intersection of politics, democracy, and trade and development in Latin America. Recently, his research and advocacy work focused on the effects of China’s influence in the region’s economy, democracy, and the rule of law. He has briefed the U.S. Congress House of Representatives and the U.S State Department on China-Latin American relations.

He is Founder President of the centrist political party Partido Morado (Purple Party) in Peru, and two-time Presidential candidate, nearly elected in 2016. Previously, he served in government as Secretary General of the Office of the Prime Minister –appointed President of the Cabinet of Vice Ministers– and Vice Minister of Micro and Small Enterprises. From 2001 to 2011, as Trade Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C., he led the Bank’s agenda on trade and poverty.

Julio holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University. He is a World Fellow at Yale University (2018), Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University (2019), and Reagan-Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (2022), and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He taught at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

In his free time, Julio enjoys reading history and playing table tennis.