Luisa Palacios is the Interim Director of Research and Managing Director of Energy Transition Finance at the Center on Global Energy Policy. She comes to the center after a multidisciplinary career in the intersection of energy, finance and policy.
She was the Chairwoman of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corporation during a critical period in its history, as it faced significant geopolitical, financial, operational, and legal challenges. As Citgo’s first-ever chairwoman, Palacios also shaped efforts to strengthen corporate governance, ethics, and social responsibility.
Before her time at Citgo, Palacios was a Senior Managing Director and member of the management committee of Medley Global Advisors, a NY-based energy and macro policy research firm. She headed Medley’s Latin America’s economic and energy practice and later the firm’s emerging market research team. She previously worked at Barclays Capital as a Director in the emerging markets research department in New York and as an economist in the risk department at Société Générale in Paris. She also worked as Senior Economist at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and as a Consultant in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
She graduated from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela; received a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; and obtained a Ph.D. in international affairs from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Dr. Palacios co-leads the ESG/Energy Transition Finance working group and the Financing of the Energy Transition Initiative at CGEP. She is an adjunct faculty member at the School of International and Public Affairs, an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University, and a member of the faculty advisory committee of Columbia University’s Santiago Global Center in Chile. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Americas Quarterly and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She chairs the Financial Working Group of the Methane Abatement Financing Taskforce (MAFT) and was the Deputy Chair of the 2024 B20 Finance and Infrastructure Task Force during Brazil’s G20 Presidency. She Is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The Hudson School.
