José Ramón López-Portillo Romano
Dr José Ramón López-Portillo Romano is an academic, entrepreneur, diplomat, consultant and public servant from Mexico.
In the Government of Mexico, he was Director General and, later, Undersecretary of Programming and Budget.
In international diplomacy, he was elected Independent Chairman of the FAO Council of the United Nations. Previously, he was the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations agencies in Rome, Italy, and was elected to various international positions.
An economist by origin, Dr López-Portillo has a DPhil (PhD) in Political Science from the University of Oxford, where he has worked on various academic projects, especially as co-founder and coordinator of the Centre for Mexican Studies.
Among his private activities, he is co-founder and Chairman of Zenith Energy Ltd (a listed company in London); "Q-Element" (a consulting firm established in Oxford); “México Actua”, an action-tank based in Mexico.
He represents CONCAMIN (Confederation of Industrial Chambers of Mexico) in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
His multifaceted professional experience has enabled him to tackle from different angles accelerating technological change and its socio-economic impact. He has written, in this regard, a book: "The Great Transition: Challenges and Opportunities of Exponential Technological Change", as well as various essays and articles on the matter. Among others, an in-depth study for CONACYT (National Council for Science and Technology) on the technological agenda of Mexico (2018).
Dr López-Portillo has promoted and advised the Government of Mexico in these aspects, which has led to his participation in important additions to the UN 2030 Agenda for the achievement of the SDGs (eg Resolution RES 73/17 of the UN General Assembly on the "Impact of rapid technological change on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals").
He is an advisor to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations for science and innovation diplomacy.
The United Nations Secretary-General appointed him a Group of Ten Experts member in support of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism. He has significantly contributed to the UN 2030 Agenda on the "Impact of rapid technological change on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals". He was reappointed to this position in May 2022. He was also nominated fellow of the International Science Council and other STI-related organisations.