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Banco de la República, Colombia

President of the Luis Angel Arango Public Library – the biggest in Colombia – and member of the Banco de la República Central Bank in Bogota, Vives was dean of the School of Economics and Business at the Universidad Tecnológica de Bolivar, where he created the university’s Masters program in Development and Culture as well as the Ibero-American Research Laboratory on Culture and Development.

Vives is also an economist and cultural manager whose work focuses on the Caribbean. Author of The Stranded Island among other books, scientific articles, and publications, he spent two decades heading the Caribbean Observatory, one of the region’s main economic think tanks.