Anabel González
Anabel González, nonresident senior fellow since October 2018, is on leave for public service as vice president for countries at the Inter-American Development Bank. She was previously on leave as deputy director-general at the World Trade Organization from June 2021 to August 2023, where she facilitated trade negotiations among WTO members, including on trade-related aspects of the pandemic, oversaw the division of economic research, expanded the knowledge agenda with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, managed the relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean, and launched the WTO's first blog "Trade Thoughts."
At PIIE, González launched the Trade Winds virtual event series in 2020 and was host until May 2021. She also conducted and published research on trade policy, economic integration, and the multilateral trading system.
Previously she was senior director of the World Bank's Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice (2014–18), where she led the Bank's agenda on trade, investment climate, competitiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She served as minister of trade of Costa Rica (2010–14), where she headed the strategy to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, negotiated and implemented six free trade agreements, and contributed to attract over 140 foreign direct investment projects. She also had a lead role in Costa Rica's Competitiveness and Innovation Council and was president of the Export Promotion Board. In her more than 15 years of service at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, she held several positions, including ambassador and chief negotiator of the free trade agreement between Central America and the United States (2003–04). She has also worked as director of the Agriculture Division of the World Trade Organization (2006–09); senior consultant on trade and investment, Inter-American Development Bank (2009–10); and director-general, Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (2001–02).
She is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Trade and Investment and has written extensively on trade and investment and presented in over 70 countries around the world.
She holds a master's degree in international trade law and policy from Georgetown University and a law degree from the University of Costa Rica.