Ricaurte Vásquez Morales was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the Panama Canal Authority for a seven-year period starting September 2019. Dr. Vásquez is a Panamanian economist with an extensive and successful professional career of 40 years in the government sector and in private companies in financial, economic, and administrative management.
Within the public administration, he has held prominent positions such as: minister of finance and treasury, minister of planning and economic policy, as well as of economy and finance in 2004. He was the first non-US chief financial officer for the Panama Canal and later deputy administrator and president of the board of directors. In the private sector, his experience covers banking at Chase Manhattan Bank; mining development with Rio Tinto Zinc in the development of the Cerro Colorado copper project; and more recently at General Electric with regional responsibilities and covering gas-to-power initiatives in Latin America. He retired in 2015 to carry out his professional practice with SIGMA Management Advisors Corp.
Dr. Ricaurte Vásquez holds a PhD and MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an ME from North Carolina State University, and a BS from Villanova University. He has been a professor of economics and finance in Panama and abroad. His professional experience is complemented as a university professor of economics at Florida State University, at its headquarters in Panama.
