Experts and Staff

Francisco R. Rodríguez is the Rice Family Professor of the Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a non-profit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and has an undergraduate degree in economics from Venezuela’s Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

Rodríguez has taught economics and Latin American studies at the University of Maryland at College Park, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA), and Wesleyan University. He has held prominent positions in the public and private sector and international organizations, including Head of the Economic and Financial Advisory of the Venezuelan National Assembly (2000-2004), Head of the Research Team of the United Nations’ Human Development Report Office (2008-2011) and Chief Andean Economist of Bank of America (2011-2016). Rodríguez was also a Greenleaf Visiting Professor at Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies, a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame and an International Affairs Fellow in International Economics of the Council for Foreign Relations.

Rodríguez is a frequent contributor to several publications such as Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, The New York Times, Americas Quarterly, Foreign Policy and the Washington Post, among others. He has published more than fifty research papers in academic outlets including the American Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Macroeconomics, Journal of Politics and Economic Development and Cultural Change. His book Scorched Earth: The Political Economy of Venezuela’s Collapse will be published in 2024.