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Biography

Luisa Palacios is an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), where she also served as Interim Senior Research Director and Managing Director of Energy Transition Finance.
She joined CGEP after a multidisciplinary career in the intersection of energy, finance, and policy. She served as the first 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. During that time, she was also President of Citgo Holding and PDV Holding.

Prior to Citgo, Ms. Palacios was a Senior Managing Director and a member of the management committee at Medley Global Advisors, a macroeconomic and energy policy advisory firm based in New York. Earlier in her career, she 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 served as a 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.

Dr. Palacios has a bachelor’s degree from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela), holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and earned a Ph.D. in international affairs from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Dr. Palacios 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 also serves on the Editorial Board of Americas Quarterly and is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Among her international engagements, Dr. Palacios serves on the Steering Committee of the Methane Finance Working Group (MFWG). She previously served as Deputy Chair of the Transition Finance and Investments Working Group of the Sustainable Business COP (Brazil, 2025) and as Deputy Chair of the 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.

Dr. Palacios is on the Advisory Board of Flying Rivers, a Latin American investment fund.

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